That's an ambitious title! Simply put, Qlayers has developed a print head, that is fitted on a robot and can create a microstructure in existing topcoats. The microstructure is inspired by the skin of sharks and has been proven to reduce friction drag in water or air up to 6%. The 'sharkskin' principle has been known for over 50 years. For example, a sharkskin coating was applied to the sailboat Stars and Stripes, winning the America's Cup in 1987. Since then, structured coatings have also been applied to swimsuits and aircraft, to increase top speed or reduce fuel consumption. Qlayers believes that costly application methods and ease of fouling have prevented widespread application on aircraft, ships and wind turbines. To enable functional microstructured coatings on these large surfaces, qlayers has developed a special printing technique. The print head is mounted on a robot, that scans the surface.
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Some results of over 30 years of research on the drag reduction of sawtooth (a) and scalloped riblets (b). The reduction Δτ/τ₀ depends on the non-dimensional riblet spacing s+. For yachts, the optimal spacing is between 50 and 100 μm.
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