February 7 - Over the last 18 months, Sea-Fit has reformulated its socketing resin product, Socket Lock in a joint effort with ITW Polymer Technologies.
Sea-Fit is a company established to develop products for the rigging industry, with a focus on niche and harder to locate items. The company is in the process of developing an extensive line of heavy lift and offshore mooring fittings with its manufacturing partner, Ulven Companies.
Sea-Fit says that its new product used in the resin socketing of wire ropes has improved grip performance and has undergone static, dynamic and shock load testing. In addition, improvements were made to the formulation to increase the product's stability and toughness.
To complement the enhancements to the product's performance capabilities, the resin and hardener are now packaged in environmentally sealed foil packs.
To further ensure stability, the components are then placed in plastic containers fitted with vapour lock lids.
The plastic container can be used as the mixing vessel and is obviously well suited for corrosive marine environments. Not only is this packaging easy to use, it serves to ensure the product's freshness.
To make mixing easier, the resin colour is now bright green and the hardener is white and in a soft paste form. When mixing, it is easy to see when the mixture is fully blended as the white swirls will disappear when fully mixed.
All components are designed to be free of dusty, hazardous components. To make pouring sockets a cleaner process, each kit is now supplied with a disposable pouring funnel on which useful information such as socket volumes and recommended socketing practices.
Socket Lock says its new product has met or exceeded all of the performance and properties criteria to be Type Approved by both DNV and ABS.
