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COATINGS & CORROSION CONTROL cally blasted and manually painted. Met- als USA sought a less labor-intensive process to perform this function.

The Wheelabrator Blast and Paint Line was installed in Mobile, Ala. in late 2003.

Designed to blast 12-ft. wide raw steel plates and small structural shapes, the machine is primarily used to blast plates for shipbuilding. With the new machine, only one operator is required. Plates or shapes are loaded onto the Blast and Paint

Line's roll conveyor by magnet or vacuum cranes. Plates up to 50 ft. long can be blasted, and the machine runs at a speed of five- to 10-ft. per minute. Steel shot is used for the blasting process. The machine features a direct flame preheater, allowing it to cure and dry the paint in one step. After leaving the machine, plates are cut into various shapes with plasma cut- ters to meet shipyard needs. Plates are unloaded from the machine by the same crane that originally loaded them.

Another unique feature of the Mobile,

Ala. Blast and Paint Line is the painting process. The machine is equipped with two separate sets of dedicated paint heads.

This allows both water-based primer and solvent-based pre-construction primer to be loaded into the machine at all times

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OIS Wins Semi

Reactivation

Contract

In early 2005, Transocean Inc selected

Mobile, Alabama based Offshore-Inland

Marine & Oilfield Services Inc (OIS) to perform the re-activations of semis Falcon 100 and Amirante. Transocean has now designated OIS as the prime contractor for the re-activation of the Semi C. Kirk

Rhein. The ongoing topside services pro- vided by OIS include steel fabrication and renewals, piping and tubing replacement, electrical repairs, mechanical component replacement and deck crane repairs.

In addition to services provided to

Transocean in Mobile, OIS has numerous teams offshore providing service for other

Transocean rigs as well as for Noble Cor- poration, Diamond Offshore Drilling,

GlobalSantaFe Corporation, and Cal Dive

International. OIS offers a strategic ser- vice connection supporting existing marine and offshore assets.

Donjon-Smit Offers

No Cost Coverage for Salvage

Donjon-SMIT, an OPA-90 Alliance, will now offer free coverage for salvage, firefighting and lightering as required under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The majority of OPA-90 salvage, firefighting and lightering service providers charge a fee, ranging as high as $650 per vessel per year of coverage, particularly for tank vessels. Donjon-SMIT offers free stand- by coverage for all vessels both tank and non-tank, which will result in significant savings for companies.

This new no cost approach by Donjon-

SMIT is based on the operational capabil- ities of the company, usage of own equip- ment and access to additional resources necessary for effective and timely response to all kinds of casualties. 28 • MarineNews • February 2006

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