AluminumNow - EuroTech Marine Designs

Aluminum verses GRP

 Can aluminium complete with Fiberglass as a production hull material

In terms of cost, aluminum construction is about equal to solid fiberglass construction – yet stronger, and is less costly than foam or balsa cored fiberglass construction.  Therefore, as a material it can outperform fiberglass on a cost basis.  In terms of weight, aluminum construction is lighter than solid fiberglass when comparing the materials on strength basis, and is about equal in weight to cored fiberglass construction. Thus, it is very competitive with advanced fiberglass laminates – yet at a substantially lower cost.  Aluminum is not only an ideal material for building a lightweight boat, but it lends itself to new advanced computer aided design and manufacturing methods (CADCAM) of fabrication which reduce cost by simplifying construction and the elimination of excessive man-hours traditionally experienced with aluminum boat construction. Considering its strength and durability, an aluminum boat with correctly applied protective coatings, adequate zincs, a proper electrical system, and good care over time, will last indefinitely.

 Furthermore, additional cost savings are realized in that aluminium manufacturing methods don’t require the construction of plugs and molds, which are typically required by fiberglass boat builders. Therefore, both the high cost and long lead-time required to develop these tools are eliminated and the cost savings can be passed onto the consumer.

 Durability and Repair

Aluminum has great toughness. It will survive impacts that neither steel nor fiberglass will survive. In cases of heavy impact, steel or fiberglass will rupture while aluminum will merely dent. Like steel, aluminum has considerable ductility,

i.e. the ability to withstand permanent deformation without rupture. It is one-third the modulus of elasticity of steel, thus it absorbs the energy of any impact over a greater distance than steel. Therefore material stress levels are considerably less than would be the case in steel. Fiberglass, on the other hand, is extremely brittle and thus is subject to cracking and fracture upon impact.

Aluminum boats are much easier to repair than fiberglass boats, particularly fiberglass boats with internal fiberglass liners. With aluminum, dents can often be pounded out with a hammer, but if necessary, sections of a plate can be cut out with a saw and simply replaced.  Information was received of a repair that was carried out on a 50 foot aluminum boat that had been driven onto a rock at 18 knots in a matter of a couple of man-days of work. A similar fiberglass boat might well have sunk, and probably would have been damaged beyond economically feasible repair.  Aluminum also presents the option of not having to paint the hull’s topsides above the waterline, which eliminates the care and maintenance typically required of gel coated paint surfaces. This is not only of particular interest to the commercial market but to the experienced yachtsman as well.

 New Paint coatings are available using a positive charge systems for underwater areas (and indeed topsides and deck if so desired) with a molecular linked or bonding system which will allow the use of conventionally anti-fouling coatings and prevent damage from other vessels in a harbour or marina.

(Further investigation is under way re coatings)

 Flammability

Aluminum does not burn. Fiberglass boats contain petroleum-based resins, which burn energetically. Fire retardant resin makes them harder to "light", but nonetheless the burning is energetic once started.

  Ease of Customization

Since aluminum boats are not built from molds as are fiberglass boats, changes in design, modification in the location of bulkheads, size of cabins, etc. are all accomplished much more readily than with fiberglass. Cutting and welding or drilling can relocate hardware with ease. With the advent of computer-aided design, custom hull shapes and arrangements can be provided at prices competitive with low-volume production runs.

 Corrosion Resistance

The salt water corrosion resistance of 5000 series Aluminum alloys is excellent and has been demonstrated by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in a thirty year test from the mid 1930's to the mid 1960's at which time a section of an aluminum hull was retired from its test site in Narragansett Bay because so little was happening to it. Corrosion problems with aluminum boats can usually be traced to either the use of improper alloys or galvanic or electrolytic corrosion, all of which may be easily eliminated through proper material selection, proper wiring, bonding, and isolation procedures.

New Technology

A new production process has been developed that revolutionizes the aluminum boat building industry. The process includes:

• Software that is able to cut the development time

involved in moving from design to manufacturing.

• A production process that involves the cutting, welding and finishing of aluminum hulls in as few steps and pieces as possible.
• This process takes hundreds of man-hours off the post-production process of finishing the exterior of the boat by having less seams and weld marks to fair out of the hull.
• Vessel can be finished in Florida or shipped as complete kits ready to be constructed at any location in the world.   

 This new technique has been developed over the last six years and is considered to be a revolutionary aluminum boat building process. This process includes the use of purpose specific software, operating in tandem with a robotic cutting table in order to allow the fabrication of boat hulls that are optically perfect and accurate to within 1/16 of an inch, out of a single sheet of aluminum. Using this new innovative construction method, hull fabrication only takes approximately 3days and with approximately 2000 labor hours less than conventional aluminum boat fabrication methods. Because the hull is pulled smoothly into shape from large sheets of aluminum, rather than welded together in multiple sections, enormous labor savings are realized over the conventional piecemeal welding method, where numerous seams as well as heat and bending distortions cause a necessity for time-consuming fairing in order to achieve an acceptable finished product. In this refined new method forinstance, no filler is required for cosmetic purposes to finish the hull, compared to an average of 20 gallons of filler needed when using the conventional aluminum construction process for a 40’ boat. The result is that this new method allows the building exceptionally durable pleasure yachts and commercial vessels at substantially lower costs than previously possible.

The company’s main, mass-produced product will be the FastWater line of recreational yachts, which will include the 35’, 45’, & 55’ powercats, 50’ sailcat, the 42’ & 50’ FastWater monohulls sailboats, as well as the 50’ FastWork commercial power catamaran. The company presently has numerous other designs on the drawing board including a 120’ mega-yacht.