Patent ID: 7527454

Claim:
A marine fender for attachment to a marine structure to protect against damage from collision forces at the marine structure, the marine fender comprising: an elongate body of resilient material of indeterminate longitudinal length, the body including: a basal wall for mounting the body upon the marine structure, the basal wall having a basal mounting surface dimensioned and configured for engaging the marine structure; an outer wall integral with the basal wall at transversely spaced apart intersections between the outer wall and the basal wall, the outer wall extending laterally outwardly away from the basal wall to establish an inner space between the outer wall and the basal wall, at least a portion of the outer wall following an outwardly curved contour configuration, with the inner space enabling laterally inward resilient flexure of the outer wall in response to collision forces exerted against the outer wall; a web within the inner space, the web being integral with the basal wall and with the outer wall, and having a generally M-shaped lateral cross-sectional configuration, the M-shaped lateral cross-sectional configuration including a pair of lateral legs spaced apart transversely, each leg extending laterally between a basal end integral with the basal wall and an apical end integral with the outer wall, an intermediate arm extending from each apical end toward the basal wall, intermediate the lateral legs, each intermediate arm extending at an angle to a corresponding lateral leg, such that the intermediate arms converge toward and are integrated with the basal wall intermediate the lateral legs, whereby the web establishes an integral reinforcing, energy absorbing and dissipating construction within the inner space for protecting against damage from the collision forces exerted against the outer wall.