THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997              TAG: 9701310562
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER 
        STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

KEEPING SHIP BOTTOMS SHIP SHAPE MAKERS OFFER A HULL CLEANER THAT'S QUICKER, CHEAPER AND BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.

With its squat, blocky body, bug-eyed headlamps and a cruising speed of 0.2 mph, the Bottom Blaster isn't exciting to watch.

But that doesn't matter.

It was made to get down to the nitty-gritty: specifically, to provide a cheaper, more environmentally friendly way to blast ship hulls clean.

The Center for Advanced Ship Repair and Maintenance - flaunted the machine Thursday at the Norshipco shipyard in Norfolk as an example of what can happen when public and private agencies put their heads together.

The ship repair center is a public-private partnership consisting of Old Dominion University, the ship repair yards of Hampton Roads, the city of Norfolk and Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology.

``It's okay to get next to it - that's a ship bottom blaster,'' joked Grif McCree, interim dean of ODU's College of Engineering and Technology.

He added on a more serious note, ``It indicates what cooperation can do.''

With an estimated production cost of $125,000, Bottom Blasters won't come cheap. But the machine will more than pay for itself in labor, material and environmental savings, its makers say.

For example, on a 50,000-square-foot hull, 500 man-hours of work using the open-blast technique could be done in 80 hours with a Bottom Blaster. The clean-up, which would ordinarily take about 400 hours, requires 10 using the new device.

Solid waste production with a Bottom Blaster is 100 times lower than with an open blaster.

On hull-cleaning days, sections of dry dock would be a foot deep in blasting grit, paint chippings and rust. And the air would be laden with dust, McCree said.

Unlike, open-grit blasting, which lets abrasive material, corroded paint and dust fly freely, the Bottom Blaster employs ``closed-cycle blasting'' which keeps almost all of the blasting grit and paint confined to an assembly on the Blaster's crane-like appendage.

Ship repair center officials admit that as with any prototype, the experimental Bottom Blaster has some bugs to be worked out - one worker cut his finger while trying to get the machine to work yesterday.

But the team looks to find a manufacturer to produce it in perhaps a year.

As the Navy downsizes and commercial operators shop more judiciously for ports, having cost-saving tools like the Bottom Blaster can only help, said Norshipco Executive Vice President John ``Jack'' Roper.

``We have to be competitive,'' Roper said. ``All things being equal, price will get your customer here.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

HUY NGUYEN photos

The Virginian-Pilot

Observers admire clear paths on a ship hull stripped clean by a

machine called the Bottom Blaster.

With a cruising speed of 0.2 mph, the machine can clean a

50,000-square-foot hull in 80 hours, instead of the 500 required for

the open-blast technique.