Industrial Fibers

Mooring lines - Polyester

2012-05-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Mooring (watercraft)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A dockworker places a mooring line on a bollard.

As an ancient word, “mooring” (probably stemming from the Dutch verb meren, moor, used in English since the end of the 15th century) has accumulated a number of related uses.
When used as noun, the word mooring refers to any permanent structure that fixes a vessel's position to the bottom of a waterway without connecting the vessel to shore.
When used as a verb, mooring refers to any means of attaching a vessel to a fixed object such as a bollard, pier, quay or a mooring.

Permanent Anchor Mooring

These moorings are used instead of temporary anchors because they have considerably more holding power, cause less damage to the marine environment, and are convenient. They are also occasionally used to hold floating docks in place. There are several kinds of moorings:

Swing moorings

Swing moorings also known as simple or single-point moorings are the simplest and most common kind of mooring. A swing mooring consists of a single anchor at the bottom of a waterway with a rode (a rope, cable, or chain) running to a float on the surface. The float allows a vessel to find the rode and connect to the anchor. These anchors are known as swing moorings because a vessel attached to this kind of mooring swings in a circle when the direction of wind or tide changes.

Fore and aft moorings

Fore and aft moorings, also known as double or twin moorings, are just a pair of swing moorings with an additional rode between the two primary rodes to remove confusion as to which moorings are paired. A fore and aft mooring may have one or two floats. Fore and aft moorings fix a vessel's position more precisely than a swing mooring, and therefore allow a much greater density of vessels to be moored. They are used in particularly congested harbours, like those of California's Catalina Island.

Pile moorings

Pile moorings are poles driven into the bottom of the waterway with their tops above the water. Vessels then tie mooring lines to two or four piles to fix their position between those piles. Pile moorings are common in New Zealand but rare elsewhere.
While many mooring buoys are privately owned, some are available for public use.
Example: On the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast, a vast number of public moorings are set out in popular areas where boats can moor. This is to avoid the massive damage that would be caused by many vessels anchoring.

There are four basic types of permanent anchors used in moorings; dead weight, mushroom, screw in, and Multiple anchors.

Dead weights are the simplest kind of anchor. They are generally made as a large concrete block with a rode attached which resists movement with sheer weight; and, to a small degree, by settling into the substrate. The advantages are that they are simple and cheap. A dead weight mooring that drags in a storm still holds well in its new position. Such moorings are better suited to rocky bottoms where other mooring systems do not hold well. The disadvantages are that they are heavy, bulky, and awkward.
Mushroom anchors are the most common anchors for mud and silt substrate. They are shaped like an upside down mushroom which can bury itself in these materials quite readily. The advantage is that it has up to ten times the holding power to weight ratio as compared to a dead weight mooring. The disadvantage is that they're more expensive than dead weight moorings, don't hold well on rocky or pebbly substrates, and they take time to settle in before reaching full holding capacity.
Screw in moorings are a modern method. The anchor in a screw in mooring is a shaft with wide blades spiraling around it so that it can be screwed into the substrate. The advantages are a high holding power to weight ratio. An additional consideration is size. Screw in moorings are so small that they are relatively cheap. The disadvantage is that a diver is usually needed to install, inspect, and maintain these moorings.
Multiple anchor mooring systems use two or more (often three) light weight temporary style anchors set in an equilateral arrangement and all chained to a common center from which a conventional rode extends to a mooring buoy. The advantages are minimized mass, ease of deployment, high holding power to weight ratio, and ease of access to the required anchor components because temporary style anchors are commonly available.

Mooring to a shore fixture

A vessel can be made fast to any variety of shore fixtures from trees and rocks to specially constructed areas such as piers and quays. The word pier is used in the following explanation in a generic sense.
Mooring is often accomplished using thick ropes called mooring lines or hawsers. The lines are fixed to deck fittings on the vessel at one end, and fittings on the shore, such as bollards, rings, or cleats, on the other end.
Mooring requires cooperation between people on the pier and on a vessel. For larger vessels, heavy mooring lines are often passed to the people on the shore by use of smaller, weighted heaving lines. Once the mooring line is attached to the bollard, it is pulled tight. On large ships, this tightening can be accomplished with the help of heavy machinery called mooring winches or capstans.

A sailor tosses a heaving line to pass a mooring line to people on the shore.

For the heaviest cargo ships, more than a dozen mooring lines can be required. Small vessels generally take 4 to 6 mooring lines.
Mooring lines are usually made out of synthetic materials such as nylon. Nylon is easy to work with and lasts for years, but has a property of very great elasticity. This elasticity has its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that during an event, such as a high wind or the close passing of another ship, excess stress can be spread among several lines. On the other hand, if a highly-stressed nylon line does break, or part, it causes a very dangerous phenomenon called "snapback" which can cause fatal injuries. Mooring lines made from materials such as Dyneema and Kevlar are much safer to use, but the lines do not float on the water, and tend to sink, are costly, so they are used less frequently. Manila rope is preferred.
Some ships use wire rope for one or more of their mooring lines. Wire rope is hard to handle and maintain. There is also a risk of using wire rope on a ship's stern in the vicinity of its propeller.
Combination mooring lines made of both wire rope and synthetic line can also be used. This results in a hawser. This is more elastic and easier to handle than a wire rope, but not as elastic as a pure synthetic line. Special safety precautions must be followed when constructing a combination mooring line.

**A typical mooring scheme**
Number	Name	Purpose

1	Bow line	Prevent backwards movement
2	Forward Breast line	Keep close to pier
3	After Bow Spring line	Prevent from advancing
4	Forward Quarter Spring line	Prevent from moving back
5	Quarter Breast line	Keep close to pier
6	Stern line	Prevent forwards movement

The two-headed mooring bitt is a fitting often-used in mooring. The rope is hauled over the bitt, pulling the vessel toward the bitt. In the second step, the rope is tied to the bitt, as shown. This tie can be put and released very quickly. In quiet conditions, such as on a lake, one person can moor a 260 tonne ship in just a few minutes.

At Melbourne Port, a vessel is moored with the MoorMaster 400 vacuum pad system

The basic rode system is a line, cable, or chain several times longer than the depth of the water running from the anchor to the mooring buoy, the longer the rode is the shallower the angle of force on the anchor (it has more scope). A shallower scope means more of the force is pulling horizontally so that ploughing into the substrate adds holding power but also increases the swinging circle of each mooring, so lowering the density of any given mooring field. By adding weight to the bottom of the rode, such as the use of a length of heavy chain, the angle of force can be dropped further. Unfortunately, this scrapes up the substrate in a circular area around the anchor. A buoy can be added along the lower portion of rode to hold it off the bottom and avoid this issue.

Mediterranean Mooring

Mediterranean mooring, also known as med mooring and Tahitian mooring, is a technique for mooring a vessel to pier. In a Mediterranean mooring the vessel sets a temporary anchor off the pier and then approaches the pier at a perpendicular angle. The vessel then runs two lines to the pier. Alternatively, simple moorings may be placed off the pier and vessels may tie to these instead of setting a temporary anchor. The advantage of Mediterranean mooring is that many more vessels can be connected to a fixed length of pier as they occupy only their width of pier rather than their length. The disadvantages of Mediterranean mooring are that it is more likely to result in collisions and that it is not practical in deep water or in regions with large tides.

USS Orion (AS-18) "Med moored" with the stern tied to the pier and two anchors forward, in La Maddalena, Sardinia.

Mooring line materials

Regular mooring lines

Sisal
Hemp
Steel wire
Polyethylene
Polypropylene
Polyester (e.g. used for deepsea mooring of offshore platforms)
Nylon
Chain

High Performance mooring lines

HMPE (floating)
Aramid (heat resistant) (including Kevlar)

Industrial Fibers - Spun Yarn, Sewing Thread, Polyester fibers

2012-04-21T14:32:00.005-07:00

Here you find an older market view of fibers:

Fibers, Yarns & Threads analysis is an essential activity for the whole fiber and yarn industry as they are important component of textile industry. As per the fiber report, the trends favor man made fibers, yarns and threads. They have grown considerably in the recent years which has resulted in significant increase in their production and consumption. However, this rise is due to increased consumption in China which sustains global demand. But demands in fiber industry of other developed countries have decreased due to restructuring of their textile industry.

Global Trends in Fiber, Yarns and Threads - Production and Consumption

The output of man made fiber had increased in Asia by 11.9%. The consumption of wool and cotton has also increased here by 2.5%. A decline was seen in Europe and Americas at nearly 4.5% each. The growth in today's booming markets is predicted to be restricted by energy and raw material shortages.

Fiber trends have been favorable to man made fiber output of China, which increased by 17.4% in 2007. India's output of raw materials for cotton and man made fibers also increased in the same period. The production of spun yarns, cellulosic and synthetic fibers also increased in India. Other countries like Egypt, Thailand and Vietnam are continuously gaining importance. Other high potential nations like Cambodia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan are waiting for investments to tap their full potential.

For the period until 2020, an additional demand of 30 million tonnes of fibers, yarns and threads is forecast, raising the annual per capita consumption from 10.9 kg to 13.5 kg by 2020. Man made fiber will keep on gaining importance and Polyester will continue to dominate due to its favorable cost benefit ratio, further spinning expansions and supply of raw material from Asia and the Middle East.

Cellulosics, the staple fibers, will rise due to increased use in non-wovens and textile applications. Polyamide and acrylic fibers will be subjected to further relocations and mergers. The markets for small-scale fiber types like aramid and carbon fibers will continue growing rapidly.

In natural fibers, as far as cotton is concerned, its demand remained static in 2007 and the same trend is seen in 2008. The main causes for this trend are slower global economic growth and competitive prices of substitute fibers. Moreover, cotton output will lower by approximately 2%. Therefore demand will be high as compared to its supply, causing some mild price rise.

Wool prices have fallen after peaking in January 2008 as a result of the easing of drought conditions in the Australian region and also the demand for it has weakened. There is little chance of any strong recovery in demand of wool.

The man made fiber spinning business has further declined in Europe, Japan and the United States, while Asia continued to grow its share in the market. The global manufacturing market share for Asian countries was at 77% , of which two thirds are being manufactured in China.

The production of filament yarns rose by 10.0% , mainly due to the growth in polyesters which was up by 14.1% to . Staple fibers, the raw material for spun yarn and non-wovens, rose by 3.0% . This segment got advantage from the growing demand for viscose and polyester staple fibers as well as cotton.

When talking about sewing threads, it accounts for only around 1% of the cost of a garment but is a critical component in terms of the garment's overall quality and appearance besides impacting factory productivity. The low cost markets of Asia, Eastern Europe and Central America/Caribbean are supplying over 80% of wholesale yarn and wholesale thread for Western markets apparel requirements.

Fibers, Yarns & Threads : The Worldwide Trends

The Growth trend of fiber is not even and is increasingly shifting towards developing economies particularly the Asian countries. Investors, particularly all the companies including fiber companies, yarn companies and thread industry, are installing new machinery in lower cost regions. In developed and newly industrialized countries, the spinners are facing increasing competition from filament yarns and non-wovens too. In spite of all these, many developed economies like Italy are still competitive and have a flourished spinning industry defeating its high labor costs. It is the result of practices adopted by the fiber and yarn industries, like economy exercised while production, state-of-the-art technology for minimizing labor cost, electronic monitoring system for improving productivity, speed, quality and flexibility, innovations in designs and fibers etc.

The yarn analysis too shows that the abolition of quotas has presented new challenges in front of the yarn manufacturers. As a result of the above trends, the yarn companies in developed economies will be forced to move closer to centres of textile and apparel production so that they may offer quick response to changing demands and may also lower prices to remain competitive.

Source: http://www.teonline.com/fibers-yarns-threads/industry-overview.html

Polyester Fibers

2010-04-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

Performance Fibers is the European market leader in industrial fibers made out of Polyester.