marine airbags are often called ship launching airbags that indicate the most popular application of these heavy duty airbags is for ship launching.
The history of marine airbags dates back to 1990s. A Chinese ship repair and building shipyard launched a 60 DWT tank barge with marine airbags on January 20, 1981 and it is known as the first use of marine airbags. The invention of marine airbags was expected to develop a flexible, quick ship launching method for emergency use.Marine airbags are widely used for ship launching nowadays.It is estimated that more than 80 percent new built ship whose DWT below 60,000 are launched by marine airbags in China.
But marine airbags are found to be powerful and versatile tools for many other marine projects such as disembarking ships,heavy transportation, refloating salvage etc.A blooming application, caisson launching with marine airbags, combining the heavy transportation,refloatation and launching technology together can illustrate the versatility of marine airbags.
The typical process of caisson launch with marine airbags can be described as follows:Caissons fabricated for gravity quay are lifted from blocks and transported by marine airbags from workshop to the launch position first, then attached with marine airbags to increase their buoyancy,when the water reach needed level caissons are launched by riding rolling airbags. The whole process need neither heavy equipments nor trails ,only airbags and winches,it can save clients most investment and time. So this innovative caisson launch technology is flourishing now.
The main applications of marine airbags can be classified as: ship launching with marine airbags,ship disembarking with marine airbags,caisson launching with marine airbags, heavy transportation with marine airbags,refloat salvage with marine airbags. Some pictures below show the various applications.
