What is the Deep Draft Lubricant Association?

As you may imagine, our association members struggle to find the words to effectively describe who we are and what we do.  Although our name sounds strange, our association & its members play a very strategic role in the vastly significant world of global shipping.  To understand who we are, you'll first need to understand the name. 

We'll start with the term "deep draft"In the marine shipping industry, there are several categories of commercial shipping vessels used to transport goods & personnel to & from local & international ports.  Two of the vessel categories are determined by the “draft” of the vessel.  For those land lovers in the audience, the marine use of the word “draft” has nothing to do with beer.  In the marine industry, “draft” refers to the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull (keel).  Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate. The draft can also be used to determine the weight of the cargo on board by calculating the total displacement of water and then using Archimedes' principle. A table made by the shipyard shows the water displacement for each draft. The density of the water (salt or fresh) and the content of the ship's bunkers (fuels) has to be taken into account. The closely related term "trim" is defined as the difference between the forward and aft drafts

Our association focuses primarily on the large, ocean-going vessels that deliver products to and from ports in Northern, Central & South America.  Due to their size & capacity, these vessels displace a great deal of water thus requiring a “deep draft” in order to transit without running aground. Since most of these vessels operate internationally, the majority of the transit time & distance is spent operating in the deep, blue waters of the international shipping lanes. (Thus another industry label referring to these ships as “blue water” vessels.)  To learn more about the unbelievable size of some of these vessels, click here to see a documentary on the world’s largest cargo ship.