The Role of Rubber Fenders

To reduce the impact force when a ship comes alongside a berth, protective fendering must be installed along the front of the wharf to prevent damage to both the ship and the structure from direct collision. Ports in China began adopting rubber fenders around 1970. The rubber fenders used around the world today fall into five types: compression, pneumatic (inflatable), shear, rotary and hydraulic, with the first two being the most widely used. Most rubber fenders used in Chinese ports are domestically made compression fenders, including cylindrical, V-type (arch), roller, floating, foam-filled and W-type rubber fenders.

When a rubber fender is moulded under high pressure, the internal cohesion of the elastomer cannot be fully released, so on demoulding the part tends to be dimensionally unstable (the amount of shrinkage depends on the type of rubber), and it takes time for it to settle. For this reason, when a rubber product is first designed, both the compound formulation and the mould must be calculated carefully to achieve a good fit; otherwise the product dimensions may be unstable, leading to a loss of product quality.