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Fiberfloats™ are primarily used in the dredging
industry as buoyancy for floating pipelines and have been applied highly successfully to large diameter pipelines. As an example, floating pipe lines
with an internal diameter of 1000mm, a wall thickness of 30mm and a total weight of 30 tons have been equipped with Fiberfloats.
Because of the increased market demand for larger diameters and higher impact resistance, we have developed Fiberfloat™ to replace our
former Wavifloat product.
Besides its additional technical advantages, the manufacturing process of Fiberfloat is also more environmental friendly making it a superior
fibreglass product. We have invested a considerable amount of time and money in the development of Fiberfloat™, which we believe to be the
ultimate float product.
Fiberfloats are available in two types:
- Fiberfloat, with an outer jacket of Glassfiber Reinforced Epoxy (GRE)
- Fiberfloat-Flex, with an outer jacket of Reinforced Polyurethane (RP)
The diameter of the inside may vary between 400 mm and 1200mm, with outside diameters reaching up to 2600mm.
Standard lengths are 5 and 10m, special lengths can be tailor made and delivered on request.
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The inner pipe is made of Glassfiber Reinforced Epoxy (GRE) by means of a filament winding process for its strength and corrosion free
characteristics. A layer of polyurethane foam is applied on the inner pipe. This foam is very light, has a minimum 95% closed cells structure and has a
very high buoyancy of 950 kg/m³. The required buoyancy of the float determines the thickness of this foam layer. The final outer cover of the
Fiberfloat™ is also made of Glassfiber Reinforced Epoxy by means of a filament winding process.Because of the filament wound structure in
combination with the special epoxy, the outer cover has a very high resistance to impact, wear and tear. The final outer cover of the Fiberfloat-Flex is
made of Polyurethane, reinforced with two heavy nylon inlays. The flexible reinforced polyurethane gives the floats an even higher resistance to
impact, wear and tear.
The spherical shaping of the ends gives extra strength at the shoulders of the floats.
For good visibility at sea, Fiberfloats™ have a bright yellow colour with bright blue marking and Fiberfloat-Flex with bright orange
marking.
Fiberfloat™ pipes are delivered from FPI’s factory in Hardenberg, The Netherlands
- Storage and transportation is inclusive of the steel pipe
- Sizes according to customer’s requirements
- Long operational lifetime and virtually maintenance-free