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.

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Key numbers and economic indicators for 2012

This post is an addendum to Composites Manufacturing‘s January/February 2012 State of the Industry feature. For a comprehensive Industry Report, pick up a free copy of the January/February 2012 issue.

Marine: Anchored or Ready to Set Sail?

For the first time in several years, the marine segment has better news to report in terms of customer demand and improving business results among boat fabricators. Boat making was one of the early success stories for composites proving itself a better performing and more cost-effective material, and strong market demand made it one of the core segments of the composites industry for several decades. The U.S. marine market matured and leveled off in the 1980’s with 1988 being the peak year in composites usage when 538,000 powerboats and sailboats were sold. Sadly, the trend has been downward almost every year since with the exception of a few years in the mid-1990’s when personal watercraft were taking off and industry unit sales technically surpassed the 1988 record. In 2012, the industry is likely to achieve new boat retail sales of 190,000-210,000 which pales in comparison to the 1980’s and 1990’s, but is good news because it signifies the end of a downward trend of the last many years. U.S. boat sales fell 26 percent in 2009 to 207,000 units and went down another 9 percent to 188,000 units in 2010.

Over the last several years, the marine industry has been forced to consolidate and downsize and the survivors have sought ways to cut costs and raise productivity. Industry leader, Brunswick, now offers 24 separate boat brands, 17 of which it acquired since 2000. Through nine months of 2011 it reported stronger unit sales until divesting its Sealine boat brand in the third quarter. Revenues for the Boat Group were up 9 percent to $820 million and its operating losses were only $12 million compared to $77 million during the same period of 2010. Brunswick commented in its SEC filing for the third quarter that stronger unit sales were offset by the unfavorable effect of a change in sales mix towards smaller boats from larger, higher margin boats.

In May of 2010, the market research firm Freedonia Group published a five year outlook on the U.S. recreational boating industry and estimated the segment would rebound and grow at the rate of 9.3 percent annually through 2014. Not only did that forecast miss the 9 percent decline in 2010, it appears far too optimistic given the lackluster economic recovery underway in the country at large. It might be reasonable to expect the industry could generate that kind of growth for a year or two (possibly 2011 and 2012), and while composites fabricators would love to see boating maintain that pace indefinitely, there does not seem to be enough middle class enthusiasm for large discretionary purchases like a new boat so long as much of the public is still preoccupied with declining home prices and job market uncertainties.

Sports & Rec Outlook

From skis and snowboards to fishing rods, golf clubs and racing bikes, composites are being used more and more to improve performance in a number of sports. Hockey sticks, archery bows, tennis rackets and surfboards are other well-known sports applications. As such, the market is fragmented and growth comes in spurts and starts as individual products are introduced and, hopefully, accepted. While there’s no denying the success of composites in delivering light weight and strength in these products, the consumer thus far has been fickle in terms of their willingness to make the purchase decision for a discretionary item. 2011 retail sales growth in the U.S. is expected to grow about 6-8 percent and will continue in 2012, albeit at a slower pace. Even if the payroll tax is extended, customers will rein in spending early in 2012 as they pay off credit cards and return to rebuilding their savings.

Aerospace, Military and Ballistics

Today the aerospace, military and ballistics segment represents approximately 3 percent of the total volume demand for composite materials but it easily reaches 10-15 percent of the sales value, largely because of their expensive reinforcements and/or high performance resins and sometimes because of the more costly engineering and fabricating processes required to mold these sophisticated materials. Carbon fiber, aramid, S-2 glass and other exotic fibers are the typical reinforcing materials and some E-glass yarns and rovings are used sparingly. The segment has supplied carbon fiber-reinforced components for use in military and civilian aircraft during the last few decades and significantly advanced its penetration of the commercial aircraft market with Boeing’s mostly-composite design of the new 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 XWB.

The aviation portion of this segment looks forward to a very healthy demand outlook for commercial aircraft. Boeing Corporation’s “Current Market Outlook: 2011-2030” predicts that global air travel will grow 6 percent in 2011 and should continue to growing at or above the historical trend of 5 percent through the middle of this decade. While the number of passengers is estimated to grow 4.2 percent over the long term and the number of revenue passenger miles will grow 5.1 percent, the actual increase in the size of the global commercial fleet will be only 3.6 percent. In hard numbers, the worldwide fleet will grow from 19,410 planes at the end of 2010 to 39,530 planes in 2030, a net gain of 20,120, but factoring in the number of aircraft that will be retired over the next 20 years raises the required build to 33,500 aircraft.

While that is a very respectable order backlog to address, the number of composite-intensive new airliners will be in the minority. Boeing currently has the capacity to produce only two Dreamliners per month and hopes to raise this figure to 10 by the end of 2013. Fully 70 percent of the total aircraft to be built in this forecast period will be single-aisle passenger jets with nominal amounts of composites. Another moderating factor in assessing the demand for U.S. composites fabricators and suppliers is that a growing percent of the composite components will be sourced overseas. As an example of how global the sourcing of composite aircraft parts has become, Boeing announced at the recent Dubai Airshow that it had signed an agreement establishing Mubadala Aerospace of the United Arab Emirates as a major Tier 1supplier of composite aerostructures. It also was no coincidence that Boeing announced at the same event that it would sell $26 billion in planes to Emirates Airlines.

Meanwhile, military demand for lightweight conventional defenses and weaponry has created many ingenious applications of composite materials since the original military uses of fiber glass during World War II. Blast panels for use in constructing barracks and mess halls in the theater of operations and improved armor for light weight vehicles like the Humvee are but a few common applications widely adopted by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the more high-volume applications have already begun to phase down and are likely to continue shrinking. A strong signal of the trend in future purchases was President Obama’s 2011 federal budget which proposed that total Department of Defense (DOD) expenditures should rise by 3.4 percent or only 1.8 percent after adjusting for inflation. This ties nicely with other administration stated goals like “rebalancing the force” and “reforming how DOD does business” elaborated by Defense Secretary Gates in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) the year before. Many suppliers of military-oriented products have already noticed a reduction in spending and we can expect leaner defense budgets for the foreseeable future.

Heavy Truck Sector

The heavy trucks industry segment represents less than 5percent of total new vehicle builds but accounts for a disproportionately large amount of composites consumption. Large truck composite features include exterior components, aerodynamic applications above the cab, jumbo-sized panels used in trailers and side skirts that can run most of the length of the trailer. As of the fourth quarter of 2011, we saw good strength in truck sales as replacement buying follows the absence of equipment buys from 2007-2009 (graph 6). Recovery in the medium-duty truck market (class 4-7) has been more subdued than heavy duty (class due to weakness in construction, small business and public-sector markets. On the other hand, operators of large rigs seem to be pressing ahead with long-delayed buying programs.

Trucking serves as a rough barometer of overall economic activity because it accounts for 67 percent of the tonnage carried by all modes of domestic transportation. According to the American Trucking Association, truck tonnage rose 5.7 percent in October from a year ago, the 23^rd consecutive month of year-over-year growth. On a monthly basis, October’s tonnage rose 0.5 percent from September. These modest growth rates in operating volumes will be exceeded in new truck unit sales in 2011 and 2012 because truckers have cut back on fleet size during the recession. The number of big rigs on the road is approximately 12 percent less than the 2006 peak year, yet tonnage levels are about the same as in late 2006. Class 8 sales are expected to rise 46 percent to 156,100 units in 2011 and 191,000 units in 2012. There is upside potential here, too, because replacement demand is currently driving the heavy truck recovery but fleet expansion is on the horizon for the more successful carriers. And looking further out, recovery in construction-sector activity should finally hit its stride in another year or two, which should allow the next stage of truck recovery to materialize.

Each year the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) publishes the Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract.

Each year the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) publishes the Recreational Boating Statistical Abstract. This report condenses statistics from a series of boating industry surveys and sales figures. These numbers outline the state of the marine industry and can be used by boat manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors to understand market trends. Below are some of the most significant statistics from the report published earlier this year.

Brock Elliot is the general manager and founder of Campion Marine.

Brock Elliott is general manager and founder of Campion Marine, Inc., a family-run firm in British Columbia, Canada that has carved out a niche using bio-resins in manufacturing its boats. He says his company is the first boat maker that manufactures all its boats using bio-resins. The company sells more than 37 models and 48 variations of boats, ranging from 16 to 30 feet in length, in more than 30 countries.

How has the recession affected your business?

I come from a banking background and make sure we stay extremely conservative. I believe we survived because we are family owned and debt free. We began our business in 1974 and have weathered 38 years of economic storms. Sales are down not just in the U.S. but all over the world. I believe that housing has to settle out first, and then the boats will follow the housing. As a company, we are down significantly and the situation in the U.S. hurt us. We used to ship 250 boats to the U.S. per year, this year we probably shipped 25 boats to the U.S., which takes us back to the 1960s numbers in volume of sales.

How has your business responded to this economic downturn?

We are diversifying, and we sell boats in 30 countries worldwide. We just issued a press announcement on our first shipment to China, and we are building boats for customers in countries like New Zealand and Switzerland.

Are there any segments in boating that are doing better than others?

Pontoon boats are what is really selling, and that is why the market is shifting. Baby boomers, demographically, are 50 to 65 years old. They want a big deck and a big space. They want to go slow, have a BBQ, and put 12- 13 friends onboard.

Do you have a “green” strategy?

Right now, “green” seems to be more important to Canadians than to Americans. We moved to green nearly four years ago and my goal is to be the environmentally friendly leader in the boat industry and in boat manufacturing. Ashland Chemical, a supplier for our resins for fiberglass, came to us and said, “We would like you to test this product and see if it’s everything in the lab that it is in the real world.” We built two boats and the lab results showed the elongation is better with the bio-fibers.

What was involved in the testing of the bio resins?

We built two boats and then tested them on Lake Okanagan. We found the product to be useful and since then, we have built all our boats with bio-resins. That started us down the path of using alternative materials. For example, before we switched our floatation foam to green foam, the processing was highly toxic, and the operators had to use a space suit. However, the eco materials are non-toxic. Under lean manufacturing, it is an exercise in every step of the product to eliminate waste. We’ve taken that same practice and apply it to going green. Our next step is to put bio-resin down for the skin coat.

How has that experiment panned out?

It’s a challenge, because every one of these products is premium. When we started using Ashland’s Envirez, oil was $150 a barrel. Then it dropped to $40 per barrel. Now it’s back up to $100 barrel. It is a premium product, but we’re negotiating hard with our suppliers. They want the business and we want service to be better, because we strive to be the leader in eco-friendly boat manufacturing.

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In 2008, Warrior Boats ceased operations after previous Owner Dan Klimek’s intentions to purchase the company from Founder Tom LaTour fell through, leaving the company without a unified leadership to continue production. The Warrior website went offline and rumors began to circulate that rival boat company Yar-Craft may step in to buy the Warrior name. However, during this same time professional walleye fisherman Chuck Barth and Dave Andersen discussed a prospective partnership to keep the Warrior brand in business. “Barth and I have been trying to get the company running for the past year and a half,” says Andersen, 2005 Pro Walleye Tournament (PWT) Championship winner and Warrior customer. When the opportunity to purchase Warrior Boats came to market early this year, Andersen, Barth, and two other fishing fans Joe Hellerman and Al Leinen, entered a bid to secure the future of the company.

Old charm hooks new owners

The new owners are confident in the success of the company because they believe in the Warrior product. According to the group, the Warrior boats, known throughout the fishing world for their successful patented steering technology, run unprecedented horsepower compared similar boat designs. “One of the first things people ask me when they get on my boat is, ‘225 horsepower? Is the sticker on your motor right?’ I get a lot of looks,” laughs Andersen. The Pro-Tiller Hydraulic Remote Steering System allows Andersen’s boat to have quicker, more precise responses compared to that of many other console boats. He attributes his success in the 2005 PWT Championship to his Warrior despite the “nasty, snaggy bottom” and wind he struggled with that day.

“I sold Warrior boats for a number of years,” says investor Joe Hellerman, who studied as a marine technician and now works as a dealer at Melrose Marine & Sports. He bought into the company because he liked the design of the boat and the ride. “The hull design, constructed using traditional open molding lay-up with unidirectional layers of Knytex, is arguably one of the best built-in features,” he says. Warrior also employs fiberglass stringers, uncommon in most fishing boats, to provide support to the straight bottom V-hull, and plywood laminated with fiberglass transoms that run the length of the boat. “I know composites are the wave to the future. They have lightweight properties and offer boat rigidity,” says Hellerman.

A new day dawning for fishing boat industry

The group fundamentally came together for one purpose: To bring back a proven fishing boat and make it successful once again. “It was too good of a product to lose,” says Andersen. They each bring separate Warrior perspectives to the newly reformed company, including former dealers, workers, boat dealership owners and pro walleye champion customers.

This year the four owners will be using the same designs with minor cosmetic changes and expect to do more modifications for the 2013 line-up. They will offer six of the top-selling models, including the V1890, an 18-foot tiller; the V2090, 20-foot tiller; the V203, which is a 20-foot console boat; the V2121, a 21-foot console boat; and the V177, which is a 17-foot starter boat.

The men expect the new Warrior and its products to increase competition and push fishing boat technology to the next level. “Warrior was the leader in the industry for a number of years because it was the only one you could put more than a 125 horsepower motor with the patented steering system. The company previously impacted the industry and we believe it will continue to do so in the future,” says Andersen. Having a company like this back in the market is a sign there is positive change on the horizon.

“I’ve done some investigating into other boat companies and it seems that even though the economy is bad, the marine industry is still doing well. I talked to the head of Alumacraft in St. Peter, Minn., and they’re on the way to the best season they’ve ever had. Fishing boats must be one of the things people are still spending money on,” says Andersen. “We’re still going out and going fishing, enjoying life a little. I think it will continue.”

The newly relaunched company expects to employ 10 members from the old staff and move the manufacturing plant to a nearby town, presumably in central Minnesota. With new feet in the door and busy phones in their hands, the proud new owners announce, “We’re back.”

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Roch Lambert - president, Recreational Boating Group

Roch Lambert is president of the Recreational Boat Group, a portfolio company owned by Platinum Equity. He has global profit-and-loss responsibility over three historic boat brands: Four Winns, Glastron and Wellcraft, which were all acquired through the Genmar bankruptcy. Lambert is well versed in the consumer dynamics that motivate boat purchases and says he anticipates a profitable future looking ahead.

I’m a very, very strong believer that we have to figure out a way to reignite the appetite of the consumer. Sales of used products have been extremely good, but sales of new products have not been so good. The other element is we haven’t given the consumer a reason to buy new boats. New boats are very much like the old ones. It’s probably been a decade since there were new designs. We need to figure out how to get some consumers to step up buying, and we developed a new plan the latter part of last year.

How do you intend to increase demand?

We are going to have a new family of boats. We’re going to launch a new boat and a new image for two brands. We have shown the new plans to a limited number of dealers and the response so far has been beyond our expectations. On our side, we made the decision to invest the bulk of everything on developing new products.

Do you have any projections on sales trends?

From an industry perspective, it would be silly on my part to expect a significant increase in volume over the next 12 to 24 months. Our focus is to take market share from our competitors. Hopefully, we’ll get the best of the dealers as excited as possible. When we have good dealers in areas, we get very good results in market share. Some days it’s a little depressing. To look at the numbers in aggregate – it’s very bad. In Canada the numbers are very strong. When people feel good about their assets, boating is not an obsolete activity. All they need is a reason to come out and buy. When the U.S. economy stabilizes, we are going to see a significant increase in volume.

What changes have you seen in the market mix?

There has been a huge migration to smaller boats. For 30 feet and up – it’s very difficult to sell anything. Reports are very consistent around the world that selling big boats is a difficult task, but smaller boats put financial pressure on dealers.

Have structural changes occurred in the boating industry?

The structure of the marine industry is always surprising. There are a lot of small manufacturers in the game. Consumers sometimes buy boats, frankly, from those who shouldn’t be in business. When you look at the infrastructure they have in place to bring a very expensive product to the market, you wonder if they are going to be here six months from now because it is complicated building a boat. How do we make sure we support the dealers to the best of our ability? Some dealers do a tremendous job, but there’s been a purge.

What are the largest drivers in the boat industry?

In the past 10 years the largest driver — what we’ve seen so far — is that it’s being driven by regulation. This has driven the costs of the units way up, while offering very limited real tangible benefits for consumers. The industry has been forced to invest in technological changes that gave no direct benefit to consumers. We have all the same engines. Your levers for differentiation are fairly limited. The number one focus on our side is to visually make drastic changes in boats from where things were before, keeping manufacturing and costs in mind. That’s easier said than done.

Looking back to the beginning of this historic downturn, were there any surprises?

It’s a big surprise there has not been too many manufacturers that went out of business. Even with Genmar, the brands survived. That’s been a big, big surprise that so many manufacturers weathered the storm.

How has the industry changed in the past few years?

I think everyone had to retrench a little bit. I don’t see that the structure of the industry has changed fundamentally. The depth has changed. At the end of the day, the size of the pool is so many units. Even for suppliers, the business has become more complex for dealers, as each transition is smaller than it used to be. That’s not a recipe for a successful turnaround in the marine industry. The volume is not going to come back to anywhere near where it was.

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Gelders, general manager of Anglers Avenue Marine Center, convinced marina owner Dan Longman to launch a major marina restoration, replacing aging wooden piers and decks with composites.

“The nicest thing about Mark Gelders is that he was forward thinking,” says Mark Pearson, president of Pearson Pilings, LLC, in Fall River, Mass. Pearson approached the Dania Beach, Fla., marina operator at the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show in 2006, proposing a composite upgrade.

Gelders, general manager of Anglers Avenue Marine Center, convinced marina owner Dan Longman to launch a major marina restoration, replacing aging wooden piers and decks with composites. Longman had purchased the 125-foot slip marina in 2006, when the circa-1960s facility was in need of extensive repairs, Gelders says. Tired of battling boring-worm issues, Gelders suggested a makeover. “Composites always run more than conventional wood or pretreated wood, but over the long haul we won’t be dealing with these pilings again. The number one reason we did it was for looks and aesthetics,” says Gelders. “We did our homework and found that the lateral strength of a fiberglass piling is about five times that of a wood piling,” says Gelders.

Due to the material’s properties, Gelders says he was able to choose 10-foot fiberglass pilings, instead of 12-foot wooden pilings, in constructing a new feature added to the marina: in-slip, vertical, hurricane boat lifts. Construction began mid 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2012.

“The marina was very much in need of repair. They are now using a product with a 100-year-plus lifespan, says Pearson. All the new slips at the marina have fiberglass pilings and composite decking. Since fiberglass pilings have five times the rating for hurricane force winds, over wood, Gelders says that in strong winds, the new pilings “will just bend and flex similar to a fiberglass fishing rod.” The lengthy lifespan was an incentive for the marina operator, too. “We do this once, and we don’t have to do it again.”

Decay rates in wood pilings are widely variable depending upon environmental factors, says Gelders. Even though the boating industry is undergoing an epic disruption, Gelders says that was exactly the reason why an upgrade was necessary. “We had to build a better dock. Compared to the rest of the marinas, ours is going to stand out.” The new materials were also easier on his customers’ bare feet, says Gelders.

With the boat industry still in a slump, Gelders says the upgrade ensures a competitive advantage. “My new docks are powered by a solar system. With my nice composite docks, I don’t charge for electricity. You’ve got to make yourself stand out.”

“The real testament is the number of marinas that buy it, and there have been quite a few,” says Pearson. However, outside-the-box thinkers have found other uses for composite pilings, too. He cites Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, R.I., as one example. “They are using composite pilings to keep the elephants in,” he says.

Expanding composites success

According to a Pearson Piling distributor Scott Tihansky, managing member at Innovative Marine Solutions, LLC in Allentown, Penn., the company’s latest large-scale project led to a groundbreaking entry within the last two years into government contracts. He says the company completed two fendering jobs — one for the Texas Department of Transportation, in Houston, in 2010 and one for the U.S. Coast Guard at Cape May, Del., in late 2009.

The installation in Texas involved replacing infrastructure made of timber and steel that was deteriorating at the junction of Interstate 10 and the San Jacinto River. “The interesting thing about this particular application was the minimum clearance under the bridge,” says Tihansky. The job involved installing 70-foot pilings while having only 18 inches of working headroom, he says. “We had a splicing kit available,” he says. “We drove it 30 feet, then spliced the piling, drove it, and spliced the piling again. It was very cost effective.” Tihansky says the vertical splicings met the needs of the embedment requirements, while working around severe restrictions posed by the highway bridge height.

“With any job involving the Coast Guard, it’s a big deal that you got their attention,” says Pearson. “The key is once you’ve gotten one, you’ll get more.” The U.S. Coast Guard fendering job in particular involved installing 18 pilings.

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Jan Fletcher is a freelance writer based in Spokane, Wash. Email comments to jan.fletcher@me.com.

The new Piranha, an unmanned vessel by Zyvex Technologies is a 54-foot carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced carbon fiber boat undergoes testing in various choppy waters.

The new unmanned vessel by Zyvex Technologies of Columbus, Ohio, named the Piranha, is not just another smooth boat ride on calm waters. When the 54-foot carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced carbon fiber boat underwent testing in Washington’s choppy Puget Sound, the boat didn’t experience a planing effect, which is where acceleration lifts the front of the boat from the water and limits its effective top speed. This triumph sent Russell Belden, vice president of Advanced Composites Solutions with Zyvex Technologies, looking for choppier waters, including waves up to 12 feet high in the open ocean.

“Testing has gone very well, including rough ocean tests out in the Pacific,” said Mike Nemeth, head of commercial and defense applications for Zyvex. The boat cruised 600 nautical miles off the coast of Washington and Oregon and only consumed 12 gallons of fuel per hour travelling at 25 knots, despite rough waters. According to company data, a conventional aluminum or fiberglass boat would have used about 50 gallons of fuel per hour at that speed.

The Piranha boasts a range of 2,800 nautical miles at cruising speed, equal to 29 miles per hour, and has a top speed of 45 knots, or 52 miles per hour. Zyvex touts the vessel as a companion boat to guard merchant vessels against piracy, as a surveillance vessel to watch the coast for drug runners or terrorists, and as a rescue vessel to go out in severe weather. “In each instance, the unmanned vessel can be monitored to give it the same capabilities as a manned vessel without risking lives,” adds Belden. The Piranha can be launched from a larger ship or dropped from the air and can stay out on the water for 40 days and can carry a load of 15,000 pounds—a weight far exceeding the range and payload of existing drone vessels.

Zyvex Technologies, a spin-off of parent company Zyvex, is a molecular nanotechnology company originally based in Richardson, Texas. The company moved to Columbus, Ohio to concentrate on advanced materials. The new location allows Zyvex Technologies to connect with the Ohio composites manufacturing community and forge partnerships important to the growth of its products,” says Nameth.

The new division developed a process that binds carbon nanotubes to carbon fiber composites. “Carbon nanotubes aren’t necessarily a good actor with other materials,” Belden says. “They bond to themselves and reject the host matrix.” This new process makes carbon nanotubes compatible with an epoxy and the materials readily bond.

The result? “Carbon fiber on steroids — stronger, stiffer, tougher,” says Belden. He emphasizes that the material can be used to make a part that will be stronger than the metal or fiberglass part, or, with engineering, can be smaller and lighter but just as strong as the part it replaces.

Zyvex engineers its own prepreg and epoxy in order to enhance the Piranha with carbon nanotubes. “For workers building the vessel, this means they’re able to quickly assemble a Piranha in our tooling without needing doctorate degrees in nano-chemistry,” said Nameth.

From start of construction to launch a boat takes approximately 90 days, with most of the time dedicated to system integration work such as placing the engines in the craft and connecting the systems. The nano-composite build process takes places at the beginning of the assembly process and overall, hulls are outfitted to meet customer requirements.

The company took more than two years to evaluate its options before settling on a boat as its technology demonstrator. “As an alternative to marine, we seriously evaluated the wind energy market with the intent to create an ultra-light blade that would increase efficiency and reduce operating costs,” says Nemeth. “We also looked at airplanes and concept cars,” adds Belden. “Ultimately, we had very strong internal marine design capabilities and recognized that our nano-carbon fiber composites could greatly impact the performance of a maritime platform if fully considered in every stage of development.”

Existing unmanned surface vessels, typically made of aluminum are heavier, carry a smaller payload and generally have a tenth of the range of the Piranha. “But a major drawback at the moment is that the carbon nanotube product is 30 percent more costly than regular carbon fiber,” Belden says. “The biggest challenge we’ve found with our customers is that they don’t have the ability to design products to use our material.” If a boat manufacturer using aluminum or fiberglass attempts to simply switch the materials out, Belden explains, the boat would be too light for the design and would be unstable. For example, if a sailboat manufacturer wanted to replace an aluminum beam, Zyvex would suggest a redesign to account for the lighter weight while maintaining stability. “Composites require a different engineering process than metal or fiberglass,” says Belden. Those differences reflect industry reluctance to greater adoption of the material.

Despite challenges, Zyvex showed boat manufacturers that while a typical 50-foot boat weighs 50,000 pounds, it can make a 10,000-pound boat with a fully furnished cabin and galley that will use smaller engines, equating to significant fuel savings. “Right now they can’t get their minds around it,” Belden says.

But the company is pressing onward. According to Belden, Zyvex would love to produce other products, such as car bodies, with its new materials. “Currently carbon fiber hoods are custom built for enthusiasts but they only save about 20 pounds over their conventional counterpart. We’d like to be involved in the whole process,” says Belden. “A 1,000 pound, 100-miles-per-gallon car would be cool.”

Greg Rohloff is a freelance writer based in Amarillo, Texas.

Bret Chilcott—president, First Source Composites

Bret Chilcott is president of First Source Components of Neodesha, Kan., a designer and builder of custom composite components through a network of independent laminators. Before starting his own company, he was with Cobalt Boats for 13 years in sales and marketing as well as lean manufacturing and new product development and engineering.

Why are we seeing composites used more often in marine applications?

Because of their durability, there is still a place for some wood in some boats, but as far as our company goes, it’s all composites. Fiberglass has replaced most wood in marine applications, especially those applications that are below the water line or will be exposed directly to the water. For example, the transom ― the wide, flat area at the back of the boat which usually bears the name—was the first area of a boat to rot because of water exposure. Most quality boats today use a combination of composites and construction foam whereas years ago, the transom was typically plywood.

Are you using any new or modified processes?

Some of our laminators excel in closed cavity bag molding (CCBM), which had been difficult for other laminators, including boat manufacturers. CCBM is typically an improvement over open molding because it gives the back side of the part a good feel versus open molding, which leaves one side of the part rough. For some applications where the consumer does not come in contact with the back side of the part, this is Okay. However, for parts where consumers come in contact with the back side of the part, they expect a smooth surface. CCBM also prevents the resin from pooling in low areas of parts that have a deep draw, like a spinner for a wind turbine or a fender for a motorcycle, ultimately producing a higher quality part.

How have customer expectations changed in the last few years?

Customer expectations have risen for higher quality parts. Rough back-sided parts like those made in an open mold are no longer acceptable. This is especially true where the customer sees the back side of the part like anchor lids and other doors. Some manufacturers may believe it’s not important to a customer, but in my experience, when a customer opens a hatch they’d be disappointed to see a rough surface. Today, a smooth finish shows quality.

What do you see as challenges for composites in the marine market?

I would say a challenge—and an opportunity—is for somebody to come up with a gel coat that will hold up as well as house paint so that it sticks and doesn’t fade. It is understood by most knowledgeable boaters and various other fiberglass consumers that today’s gel coats have a short life span if not maintained. Gel coat is no comparison to house paint or automobile paint with respect to fading. Automobile paints do not fade as boats and other fiberglass components do. The first company to make a gel coat finish that can hold up as well as automobile paints will take the entire gel coat industry by storm. If I owned a gel coat company, my R&D department would be working 24/7 on a solution to this problem.

What more would you like to see from composites?

A more cost-effective way of making tooling. There have been some strides in making rapid prototype tooling but I believe there is an opportunity for somebody to come up with tooling that will last for quite awhile. Rapid prototyping tooling doesn’t last very long; it’s not that durable and you can only get 20 or 30 parts out of it.

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J. Frank Crane, of JFCI Composites Group, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and his partner, Jim Gardiner, general manager of Compmillennia LLC, in Washington, N.C., made history in 2009 with the construction of one of the world’s biggest gigayachts: the Swift 141.

J. Frank Crane, of JFCI Composites Group, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and his partner, Jim Gardiner, general manager of Compmillennia LLC, in Washington, N.C., made history in 2009 with the construction of one of the world’s biggest gigayachts: the Swift 141.

The two men are now moving forward with other innovative ideas. With the boat building industry floating on skinny margins, and the second Swift retrofit project — the Swift 135 — on hold for now, Crane and Gardiner are aiming to rise above the water by delving into composite-bridge manufacturing. Both are preparing to pitch municipalities, real estate developers, and even foreign governments on the benefits of low-maintenance composite bridges.

“A couple of realtors caught my ear when they said they could sell property if they could get across the ditch,” says Crane. “These bridges are light and easy to handle. You can build a composite bridge in a couple of weeks, drag it with a trailer on wheels, and use a small hydraulic crane that can lift 40x tons. They would last a hundred years.”

Although traditional bridge materials are still the norm, Crane thinks maintenance issues will tip the balance in favor of composites, particularly for small bridges. “By the fifth year, when they are doing repairs [on bridges made from traditional materials] you’re not doing repairs.” It’s also an ideal solution for bridging small streams and rivers in Central America, he says.

Crane also envisions working in architectural applications. “There are lots of old buildings all over the world — lovely things to be saved — and composites make strong, suitable materials for rebuilding and restoring structural integrity. You can build hurricane- and earthquake-proof homes with composites. Not to mention the fact that the International Building Code recently added use of composites.”

For Crane, one of his biggest accomplishments is demonstrated in the unique perspective he brought to the job of constructing one of the world’s biggest gigayachts: the Swift 141. Completed for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the retrofitting of a Royal Netherlands Navy frigate was commissioned to further the UAE’s aspirations of developing world-class yacht construction.

Before embarking on such a monumental task, Crane first viewed it in microcosm, developing a small-scale model of the project. “I’m a very methodical person, and I think things through completely. Then, I turn that concept into a schedule and the management of the program,” says Crane, who confidently took on a composite-based maritime project beyond what had ever been done before. He says his methodical nature is why “I could say ‘yes’ right away and figure out the problems later,” he says.

Rich in long-term industry associations, Crane has a knack for knowing and recruiting the best in the business. He credits his 35-year-long friendship with Johan Valentijn, who was the Swift 141 project manager, for his commission to lead that project. “My strength is that I know how to find the connections—the people to do the job,” Crane says. Valentijn’s yacht designs have been showcased in several America’s Cup race boats and many other successful large yacht projects.

Since Crane had worked for many years with Gardiner, he knew he would be up to the challenge of building heated molds up to 120-feet long for the project, and Gardiner soon developed an innovative approach. Working together, the two quickly improvised the technology to create the large molds needed for the project. Drawing inspiration from radiant floor heating, the two built a temperature-controlled mold table 20-feet wide by 80-feet long, with individually controlled heat settings for each 10-foot section.

“Initially, we met on the 1st of September, and by the end of October we were building the first molds at Vectorworks Marine, 30 to 35-meters long. “We were very creative,” says Crane. “Compmillennia built a heated 20′ x 80′ temperature controlled steel, concrete and epoxy coated flat mold, which allowed us a good surface for vacuum bagging, so we could do large panels and parts, and heat them in sections. Vectorworks built 13 large individual molds and parts, and individual molds for the support frames for their large sections, so they could be laminated concurrently.”

Crane credits the project’s team for the success of the monumental endeavor. In addition to Gardiner, team members included: Bill Kullengusky, the head of engineering at Vectorworks Marine, who assisted with the 3D model, and made the geometry machine ready; Kurt Hopf, general manager of Vectorworks Marine, which has one of the largest 5-axis milling machines in the world; and Mark Bishop and Brian Climenhaga, of Waterfront Composite Solutions LLC, in Fairfield, Calif., who were responsible for the composite engineering and coordinating the design effort.

Two companies built composite parts for the Swift 141, says Crane. Compmillennia made a large part of the internal and external structure. This was like an egg crate that supported the external shell parts, which were built by Vectorworks Marine, LLC, in Titusville, Fla., in large molds the company fabricated, utilizing a 5-axis router. These parts were individually much larger, up to 15x20x120 feet, but were post-cured in the mold over months at ambient temperature.

Compmillennia’s parts were fabricated in days, and required post-curing at 125 F for 15 hours so that their flat table mold and carbon beam molds could be cycled, often two or three times per week, says Crane.

“Brian was fabulous. He completely understood the project, and turned it around quickly,” says Crane. “I also had a large-scale training program (for the fabrication crew) with Belle Blanding, a composite consultant, to ensure consistent results without problems.” George Ritter, PhD, at Edison Welding Institute, in Columbus, Ohio handled the development of the DNV Class Approved joint to connect the composites, says Crane.

As the gigayacht and other recent projects demonstrate, Crane and Gardiner have great accomplishments and look forward to more. “I just like to help push forward some new ideas, and provide good quality jobs for a lot of people,” says Crane. “The future is bright.”

Jan Fletcher is a freelance writer based in Spokane, Washington.