22 | Marine Flex 20a Arwen Place, East Tamaki, Auckland info@hammerking.co.nz Ph (09) 274 8568 www.hammerking.co.nz Complete Roller Fabrication and Manufacture 34 Klondyke Drive, Hornby, Christchurch sales@rubberdevelopments.co.nz Ph (03) 349 9436 www.rubberdevelopments.co.nz Rubber products developed to meet your design needs Expert solutions for every need. Inquire for no hassle quote today sales@uniplas.co.nz www.uniplas.co.nz +64 04 577 8970 Uniplas offers Product development, tooling, manufacturing and assembly of injection moulded parts. Proud to support WMS with Insurance & Risk Advisory New Zealand’s leading independent insurance and risk advisory New Zealand’s leading insurance broker is now HERE to help. For more information call Willy Horvath M: 027 455 5848 E: william.horvath@icib.co.nz We’re pleased to have arrived in the Hawkes Bay, helping our local businesses get all the protection and insurance advice they need. icib Proud to support WMS with Insurance & Risk Advisory New Z aland’s leading independent insurance and risk advisory New Zealand’s leading insurance broker is now HERE to h lp. For more information call Willy Horvath M: 027 455 5848 E: william.horvath@icib.co.nz We’re pleased to have arrived in the Hawkes Bay, helping our local businesses get all the protection and insurance advice they need. icib.co.nz Proud to support Marine Flex Ltd with In urance & Risk Advisory T +64 3 577 6168 D +64 9 377 4320 M +64 27 700 6647 E wayne@icib.co.nz REGIONAL Marine systems making waves around the world T T Rosa Watson International interest is growing for innovative Picton-based company, Marine Flex, whose environmentally friendly mooring and anchoring systems are being sought after across the globe. The company is experiencing global expansion since is success winning the Marine category at the 2023 Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards for their breakthrough marine systems The elastic moorings provide an alternative to traditional chain moorings that cause sweeping damage over time on the seafloor and marine habitats. In 1998, the company teamed up with Swedish firm, Sea Flex, which had pioneered an environmentally friendly rubber mooring system, combining their anchor expertise with Sea Flex on a number of projects. By 2009, owners Mike and Donna Baker had started developing their own elastic mooring product to meet growing demand for even heavier-duty rubber moorings. For the next five years, they carried out research and development to come up with the right rubber formula. They worked with a German company that is a world leader in engineering plastics to help design a termination component to finish the cord. With support from Callaghan Innovation, their new elastic mooring was thoroughly performance-tested ahead of its release onto the international market in 2015. That year, the company completed its biggest-scale anchor and mooring project at Australasia’s largest floating shopping complex and ferry terminal, Brooke Street Pier in Hobart, Tasmania. From there its global reach grew. In 2024, they provided 355 elastic units to anchor Israel’s first floating solar power station. A Belgium licensee has reported a successful season this year, its biggest harvest year – and is gearing up for a large order of screw anchors for the 2027 summer season. It has also supplied several customers in different locations throughout Australia with Marine Flex units for various projects, some bound for the Gulf of Carpentaria. Marine Flex now has other customers in Turkey, Hong Kong, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, the UAE and France, where some very large Marine Flex units were used for the fire chief’s vessel on the Seine River in Paris. Donna says recent enquiries have come from a major Greek company interested in the screw anchors and the Marine Flex system, a large North American anchoring company exploring both the screw anchors and drilling rig, and a Thai company seeking anchors and a drilling rig for a floating solar farm. An Indian company with an office in Indonesia is investigating anchors for its seaweed farming operations, while a Hungarian company is interested in using Marine Flex for navigation buoys and a Californian company is exploring the use of Marine Flex and screw anchors for a helipad project. Locally, Clearwater Mussels has embraced a special mussel float they developed using Marine Flex technology. Port Marlborough has also been very supportive, as has local iwi Te Atiawa and others in New Zealand’s marine sector. They have also supplied and installed the Marine Flex units that hold the new Port Marlborough tug & pilot boat floating berth in Picton Harbour. In another project, they installed the Marine Flex units for Energy Marlborough’s first test solar array unit – the first of its type on water in the district. “If successful we will supply a great deal more Marine Flex units for a complete solar array,” Donna says. The elastic moorings provide an alternative to traditional chain moorings that cause sweeping damage over time on the seafloor and marine habitats.
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