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Scott Lewit—President of Structural Composites
Scott Lewit is the president of Structural Composites, West Melbourne, Fla., a composite engineering company that specializes in structures for marine, military, commercial and theme park applications. He has a master’s degree in Ocean Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology – the same school where he started his company in 1986 based on vacuum infused resin transfer molding (VARTM) composite research being conducted with the U.S. Navy and his business partner, Dr. Ronald Reichard. Lewit recently won a Congressional Merit of Honor for his work developing a single-skin technology (SST) membrane for rigid inflatable Navy boats.
How can composite manufacturers succeed in this economy?
Customers are after weight savings, it’s up to our industry to open people’s minds to a new material that can provide that benefit. Fortunately, I’ve been able to find the right people within these markets. For example, through our efforts at Structural Composites, composite bridge decking will be qualified by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to be used in constructions such as movable bridges, which is a huge need in the state of Florida. This type of technology is really important for the state but also for the composites industry.
I’m a member of a coalition of boat builders in my area that are producing bridge decks. If you look at the state of the boating industry, we’re running at 30 to 35 percent production levels. This means that 70 percent of our manufacturing capacity is just sitting there. We have people out of work when there are structurally deficient bridges around the country that need to be rehabilitated or rebuilt. This would be a remarkable area for the industry and particularly the boating industry. I don’t see the boating sales to ever come back to the numbers we saw in the 1990s. Our new peak will be about 50 percent of that, or around where we were in 2005, and that’s where the new industry will stop at this point. We need to find new ways to apply ourselves.
What is the single-membrane technology you’ve developed?
The focus of the single-skin construction is that it can be manufactured very inexpensively. The materials we use to manufacture are not the advanced ones on the market. For example, we’re using a low grade fiberglass not carbon fiber. The infusion process we use to make the preform frames spits out a mile of framing in two hours. Sometimes the guy at the other end can’t handle receiving so much material! On average, we can produce frames at 16 feet a min with a top speed of 30 feet a minute. If you look at the framing, it’s nothing more than fabric and foam. With the amount of material we produce, the price of the membrane and frames are down to basically material cost. The labor cost is low because we make so much material. Therefore, we’ve created a structure lighter than a sandwich construction at a lower cost. For certain applications it’s really setting in. Floors and frame structures are a perfect setting.
How can new technology help the marine industry?
I’m currently working on bringing the single-skin membrane technology back to the marine industry and applying it to recreational boats to help reduce the cost. Five years ago, I did an article with Composites Manufacturing that outlined my project of taking a regular boat and turning it into a skipboat. It went from 150 to 115 horsepower and we took an axel off the trailer. The boat, which normally cost $32,000 cost $25,000 after. And that was five years ago! Think about what we could potentially do with this new technology and I think the market is ready for it. People are ready to speed around the lake at 40 mph instead of 50 or 60 mph to have a fuel efficient boat. In the industry we express our fuel consumption in gallons per hour. What is the number in miles per gallon? You don’t want to know. It’s not very attractive. Using the single-skin technology, we can change the design of boats to make a flatter bottom and suspend the cockpit, changing the hydrodynamics. Now you can put a smaller engine on it and that starts a spiral effect. Next you have a smaller fuel tank, you can pull an axel of the trailer, drop horsepower down to 115—you’re looking at potentially 40-50 percent savings in the price of the boat, making them affordable again.
What do you think will be the future of the composite industry?
We’re starting to see more rigorous materials being put on ships as well as boats. That’s a good thing overall. Right now is the perfect time for the industry to move to closed molding processes. I believe that this is the way the industry is heading. Manufacturers think that moving to infusion is a huge cost increase but overall if you look at the cost per boat, there is not an increase. Through implementing changes like that from open molding to infusion, you implement weight savings and pull material out of the boat. Additionally, you can offset the cost for additional labor using an infusion process.
What are some challenges with working with the U.S. Navy?
One of the most challenging factors with working with the military is keeping projects on time and on budget. You’re promising a lot to these people and you have to deliver. As we start to develop new things, we timeline budget the project out. But, things don’t always go as planned. You have problems come up that aren’t anticipated. On this project things came up like right now, we need to investigate the impact of water absorption on the laminate. The U.S. Navy, after spending time with the rigid hull boat we first designed, was finding serious issues with Kevlar reacting in water. We had to back up our material late in the program. We had to run a whole series of tests to look at the mechanical properties of the material. In order to work with the military you have to be agile and plan in a little flex in the schedule and budget because you won’t be receiving more money for the budget.
How did you win the Congressional Merit Award?
Structural Composites is based in an area of Florida known as the “Space Coast.” Our community has been dealt a special challenge after the government decision to end the NASA shuttle program. We’ve been anticipating the end of the shuttle program for a few years. It’s here now and the community is coming together to see what were going to do to increase new technology in the area. Congressmen Bill Posey (FL) put out a competition to look at emerging technologies in the area. We were selected for having the most potential for great impact to the area.
To read the rest of this interview, visit CM Online.
