News & Events
23 August 2007AEG-Future Nets Provide Welded Aquagrid® Nets that Entirely Eliminates Twine Seams for High Energy Sites
ST. ANDREWS, NB - The Aquaculture Engineering Group (St. Andrews, NB) - Future Nets (Pennfield, NB) partnership has developed efficient ways to manufacture welded Aquagrid® nets using one-pass methods and absolutely no twine to provide the aquaculture industry with superior Aquagrid® nets for use in medium- and high-energy locations.
Traditional net pens and laced Aquagrid® nets use downlines and twine to fabricate nets for the aquaculture industry. However, AEG-Future Nets methods provide a superior net with exceptional strength that does not incorporate twine, hand-lacing, or downline seams. Twine and hand-lacing is entirely replaced by welding the Aquagrid® net with a special hot air process that when combined with the strength of Aquagrid® makes use of downlines redundant. These methods ensure stronger welded Aquagrid® nets and AEG Containment Systems for use in medium- to high-energy conditions.
“The welding methods applied by the Future Nets staff take Aquagrid® nets to a new level of strength and structural integrity for global aquaculture applications,” states Chris Bridger, AEG General Manager. “Welded seams have exceptional strength and can now be used to replace twine laced seams in the production of welded Aquagrid® nets fabricated by our team of professionals.”
Acceptable breaking strengths for nylon nets used in the aquaculture industry range between 20 kg (44 lbs) and 71 kg (156 lbs), below which nets are generally removed from service. Independent tests have demonstrated that single strands of Aquagrid® have a breaking strength of 165 kg (365 lbs) while multiple welded Aquagrid® strands have an incredible breaking strength of 561 kg (1,238 lbs).
“When developing Aquagrid® we looked beyond the norm of industry standards and took each detail of what a containment system should do but was not. Strength, biofouling control, predation, longevity, handling and fish health were all separately addressed and then combined into one solution,” states Don Bishop, Market Manager and Technical Advisor for Ten Cate. “In Chile the farms using Aquagrid® have reduced escapes from a high of 12% to less then 1% and now working with AEG and their technology has brought containment solutions to an even higher level for maximum farm efficiency.”
Aquagrid® netting is a semi-rigid PVC coated bidirectional woven polyester fiber grid with a specifically formulated PVC coating for aquaculture. Already, there have been more than 350 Aquagrid® nets deployed globally to raise salmon, cod, tuna, cobia, sea bream, sea bass, and snapper.
AEG welded Aquagrid® nets can also incorporate marine zippers to completely eliminate the need for twine seams and substantially decrease net handling requirements associated with larger welded Aquagrid® nets. Independent break tests have validated the strength of marine-grade zippers for this application to be an average of 678 kg (1,495 lbs).
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