Some of Deepwater's offshore corrosion inspectors aboard the Neptune SPAR came across pipe supports very similar in appearance to Deepwater's own I-Rod brand (in October 2007). They immediately recognized the impostor supports by the lack of Deepwater's custom batch markings (provided on every piece of I-Rod manufactured) and by the fact that the supports had failed, leaving the piping vulnerable to dangerous crevice corrosion.

I-Rod Pipe Supports are specified by major operators because of their reliability and proven corrosion prevention capabilities. In 18 plus years, there has not been one reported failure of I-Rod. The simple appearance of the Nu-Bolt assembly leads many companies to attempt to copy the trademarked design, but the high-impact thermoplastic material that comprises the half-round rod is impossible to replace. No other known material possesses it's heat-resistance and compressive strength, the key factors to its success.

The above figures show how the impostor product quickly fails on a structure that is only 11 years old. Some I-Rod pipe supports have been in service as long as 19 years, still performing as well as on day one.

This is certainly not the first time that Deepwater has encountered I-Rod knock-offs, but cases did reduce after several successful law suits in the 1990's against trademark violators. In a lot of cases Delrin is substituted for the I-Rod material, as in the case above. The result is always the same, regardless of what inferior material is substituted.

Here, in one Far-Eastern project, a contractor knowingly or unknowingly purchased a cheaper I-Rod knock-off, when I-Rod was specified by the operator for the project. The discrepancy was luckily uncovered before the project's conclusion (luckily for the operator, that is), and the entire stock of knock off I-Rod was scrapped, only to be replaced by the authentic Deepwater I-Rod. The cost of this oversight was sizable, and absorbed wholly by the contractor at fault.