Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it has developed a Fender Monitoring System for pneumatic fenders used to shock absorber the docking of large ships. The system can wirelessly monitor the condition of fenders by gathering information on air pressure inside them, away from the jetty. Motion of ships moored at a jetty can be estimated by converting air pressure data into data on deformation, reaction force, energy absorption and more. As a result, dangerous situations, including excessive ship motion, can be detected in advance. This can contribute to preventing damage to ship, jetty, loading arm and other cargo operations equipment, as well as oil leakages and other major accidents caused by such damage.

In the Fender Monitoring System, a transmitter with a pressure sensor installed inside a fender sends data on internal air pressure to a receiver. Pressure, deformation, reaction force and energy absorption are then displayed on the screen of a monitoring computer. With use of optical fiber transmission, etc., it is also possible to monitor remotely at, for example, an integrated operations center at a location several kilometers away. The system is equipped with alarm and recording functions that not only facilitate safe loading operations, but establish operational standards as well as accurate analysis if an accident does occur. Field-testing has been completed at a port in South Africa. Yokohama Rubber plans to put the system on the market in fiscal 2012. This will mark the first commercialization of a remote, comprehensive, wireless fender-monitoring system anywhere in the world.

Yokohama Rubber has been developing pneumatic fenders since 1958 and plays the major role in pneumatic fender market. With characteristic aeroelastic softness, pneumatic fenders can be utilized for cargo work at ports/harbors and between ships at sea, even during severe sea condition.