Pond-Cover

Heritage

The hexagonal floating cover — engineering evolution

Two decades of the patented hexagonal floating cover: original Hexprotect® (2010 patent), AQUA (2009 release), Fortress (2022), and the family today.

The patented hexagonal floating cover was conceived 2005–2008 by AWTT and first sampled in 2008. The original Hexprotect® self-ballasting variant was patented in 2010; the pre-ballasted Hexprotect® AQUA was released commercially in 2009 as the durable workhorse, and Hexprotect® Fortress was patented in 2022 as the limited-release performance variant.

What is the heritage?

The hexagonal floating cover platform is the AWTT-patented family of modular floating-cover elements that began with the original Hexprotect® and evolved through commercial refinement into the products operators specify today: Hexprotect® AQUA, Hexprotect® Fortress, Hexprotect® SLIM, Armor Ball AQUA, and EuroCover’s own AWTT-design-approved Hexofloat®.

How it evolved

  • The original Hexprotect® (designed 2005–2008, patented 2010) was the world’s first self-ballasting hexagonal floating cover. Each tile was hollow with carefully placed side ports — water entered the tile on install through those ports, ballasting the cover with the water it floated on. The geometry made sure no light could enter the chamber and that water could drain back out cleanly. Read the full Original Hexprotect® story.
  • Variants tested in the early 2010s — air-filled outer cavities, central self-filling cavities, multi-chamber configurations — were AWTT’s exploration of pushing the centre of gravity to the middle of the tile. All were retired in favour of AQUA. Many of those abandoned designs are now what generic competitors produce — performing worse and reintroducing problems the original engineering had solved.
  • Hexprotect® AQUA (released 2009) replaced the open self-fill chamber with a pre-filled, fully-contained ballast: no contamination harbour, no ballast loss when a tile tips, taller side walls, and a smooth outer surface that sheds debris naturally. Read the full Hexprotect® AQUA refinement story.
  • Hexprotect® Fortress (patented 2022) is the limited-release variant for the most demanding industrial envelopes — kept in restricted release to protect the design from copying. See the Hexprotect® Fortress page.
  • Hexofloat® is EuroCover Water Systems’ own EU-manufactured hexagonal cover, formally AWTT design-approved — engineered for short EU lead times at a lower price point. See Hexofloat® for the product page.
  • Armor Ball AQUA is the spherical floating-cover product line in the AWTT family — see the family tree for how it fits.

Engineering validation

  • Hurricane testing — wind-load validation against Category 4 conditions. AWTT publishes 130+ MPH (209+ km/h) wind certification for Hexprotect® AQUA; the pre-ballasted design holds position without anchor failure.
  • US Department of Energy — recognition for the heat-retention contribution (reduced surface heat loss on hot wells and digesters).
  • USDA Bureau of Reclamation — independent evaporation-rate measurements across multiple deployments in the western United States.
  • University studies — multiple peer-reviewed evaluations of evaporation suppression, algae suppression, and lifecycle performance.

Manufacturing and provenance

The cover is manufactured under the original patent specification. Every element ships with provenance — material certificate, batch identification, and warranty registration to the manufacturer of record. Replacement-parts compatibility is maintained across production years, allowing operators to extend deployments incrementally over the 25+ year service life of Hexprotect® AQUA.

Why authenticity matters

The hexagonal form factor is visible and easy to copy. The patented engineering — and the pre-ballasted, one-piece moulded construction that distinguishes Hexprotect® AQUA from older self-ballasting designs — is not. The original product line carries documented wind-resistance modelling, lifecycle proof, NSF/ANSI food-grade certification history, and replacement-parts compatibility that copies do not. See Why copies fail for the engineering detail on what copies typically get wrong.

Sources

  • AWTT — Hexprotect® AQUA hexagonal cover (manufacturer canonical product page)
  • US DOE recognition of AWTT cover heat-retention contribution (year/document pending founder confirmation)

Heritage deep-dives

Heritage FAQ

Why does AQUA's 2009 release predate the 2010 patent grant? #
The patent application predated the grant by several years (the standard USPTO timeline). AQUA was released commercially in 2009 while the original Hexprotect® patent was still in examination. The 2010 grant covers the original Hexprotect® self-ballasting design — AQUA is a refinement of that protected line.
Is Hexprotect® Fortress publicly sold? #
Fortress (patented 2022) is in limited release to protect the design from copying. AQUA remains the workhorse for general industrial deployments; Fortress is specified case-by-case.
Where does Hexofloat® sit in this lineage? #
Hexofloat® is EuroCover's own EU-manufactured hexagonal floating cover, formally AWTT design-approved. It shares the working principle of the patented AWTT line but is engineered for shorter EU lead times at a lower price point.
What about the abandoned Hexprotect® variants from 2010+? #
AWTT tested multiple variants in the early 2010s — including configurations with air-filled outer cavities and central self-filling chambers — to move the centre of gravity toward the middle of the part. All were retired in favour of AQUA. Many of those abandoned designs are now what generic competitors produce, performing worse than AQUA and reintroducing problems the original engineering had solved.