Plasma sprayed plastic bottom?

[Tefcite Coating]

Yes, you are correct. I'm the subject matter expert on Tefcite in the Bay Area.

The pictures I sent you Matt model what happens when a boat sits in it's slip for 3-4 months between usage. Matt please feel free to upload those pictures to this thread if you'd like.

If you use your boat once a month to some degree, and hydrodynamic forces are applied as a result of the boat moving through the water, biofouling with not have time to properly attach and will clean itself during every use.

To address a previous comment, the copper powder does not leach out of the coating and leave the boat owner with a "plastic" hull - that's not an accurate.

Since the copper is infused throughout the entire matrix of the coating, the coating would have to be completely stripped down to the gelcoat to lose it's anti-foulant property i.e. be devoid of it's copper anti-foulant.

Every square inch of the coating has >50% copper metal powder contained within it, and only the surface copper is responsible for it's anti-foulant properties.

Today, I visited Spaulding Boatworks, Bayside Boatworks, Schooner Point Marine, and KKMI Sausalito.

[Jim Cate]

Zach, thanks for the posts. Could you address the question of removal of the Tefcite from a hull if that became necessary, please?

Jim

[Tefcite Coating]

Jim,

Thanks for your question.

Tefcite can be removed from the hull by a variety of methods, however, it will be more laborious than marine paint i.e. it cannot be hydroblasted off.

Tefcite can be removed via hand sanding or hydroblasted with blasting media
like glass beads or sand slurry. We are working on a protocol using dry ice to "freeze" make the plastic coating making it more brittle and easier to remove without damaging the fiberglass hull. Obviously, metal hulls can be sandblasted down to bare metal and re-coated with paint if necessary.

It's important to mention that Tefcite need not be removed at all. It can simply be painted over, and offers an excellent substrate to adhere epoxy paints to. In this case, we'd recommend that the outer surface again be surface prepped to provide a 1-3 mil depth profile to help the paint anchor to the surface.

Tefcite effectively seals in the fiberglass hull to prevent hull blistering. A non-anti-foulant sealant can be applied to the hull at about 1/2 the cost of Tefcite.

For older hulls with pitting and damage to the gel coat, we recommend applying this non-antifoulant sealant to the hull prior to Tefcite. The sealant is a water impermeable barrier, that the Tefcite topcoat can be readily "melted" into. In this case, the sealant/Tefcite combination offers a partial restoration of a fiberglass hull (below the water line).

While expensive, the entire vessel could be powder coated in the sealant, and painted applied above the waterline, and Tefcite applied below the water line resulting in a complete restoration of the entire vessel. For special projects this may be a option for serious boat maker enthusiast's.

Again, the process of spray on powder coating using a proprietary plasma spray system is totally new to the boating world. The method to spray molten plastics infused with copper metal as an anti-foulant which is both highly impermeable to sea water corrosion, highly abrasion resistant, and durable to repeated cleaning without damaging the coating's performance - maybe the next evolution of high performance marine coatings.

Keep the questions coming, it's important that I provide accurate information on the technology so boaters can make an informed decision on whether a Tefcite hull coating is the right application for their investment.

[Tefcite Coating]

Spraywerx has this on their website, but does not own the equipment to apply Tefcite or has a license to do so. We've asked them to remove this from their site, but they have not done so this far. Happy to have the advertisement, I guess, but they cannot make good on offering Tefcite to boat owners.