Rockhoppers made to last

According to Thórður Áskell Magnússon, one of the owners of Vélsmiðja Grundarfjarðar, conventional discs are cut from tyres that have been used on heavy earth movers, and there are several problems with these. Firstly, rubber sourced from tyres has steel threads running through it that makes recycling difficult as well as generating other hazards – plus the supply of this material is starting to run short. 

Looking for a suitable alternative, he went to many producers in mainland Europe to find something that could be a better option, and found what he was looking for in Poland.

The result is a range of rockhopper discs that have performed outstandingly well in trials on the hardest fishing grounds.

“This is what we’ll be using in future,” said Snorri Snorrason, skipper of trawler Pálína Thórunn, who has been trying out the new footrope rubber discs.

Filling the void

Magnússon explained that the search for something new began in response to enquiries from customers as tyre rubber becomes increasingly scarce, with even tyres that had been used in landfill having been dug up and retrieved for use.

“The stocks of these are getting low, so it was becoming urgent to find ways to produce rockhopper discs without the steel content that more modern tyres have. We went to suppliers in Ukraine, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and China before we made contact with a company in Poland which is a respected producer of materials that are used for military hardware, including compressed rubber that’s used for tank wheels and aircraft tyres,” he said.

“This is a state-run enterprise producing high-quality rubber which is compressed with an exceptionally high 70-tonne pressure. We went ahead with test production of rockhopper discs, and the result is that we have a licence to sell these in Europe.”

The discs were tried out in Pálína Thórunn’s footrope.

“The skipper is very satisfied with their performance and reports that after trying them out on hard grounds they met all his requirements,” he said, adding that while this performance also comes at a price, it’s something that pays off in the longer term.

Outperforming the norm

Vélsmiðja Grundarfjarðar has its range of rubber bobbins available in A and B grades. The A grade rubbers showed virtually no abrasion at all after five weeks of hard use, while a similar trial with the lower-cost B grade rubbers showed 20-30% less abrasion than the conventional rubbers used in the same footrope for comparison.

“These aren’t cheap, but there’s no comparison in terms of how long these last compared to conventional rockhopper discs,” he said and commented that the company has the option of getting a significant discount from the producer on large orders, and any such discount would go wholly to their customers.

“Different thicknesses can also be available, and there are plenty of options available, as we can have these made in whatever size, weight or thickness the customer requires, plus we can also supply complete footropes if required,” Magnússon said.

“We feel that we’ve been fortunate to find this method of producing rockhopper bobbins that are ideal for the demanding fleet in Iceland, and elsewhere around the world.”