Carbon and Epoxy Infuse Major Benefits in Marine Manufacturing

The demand for lighter, faster boats is a steady goal in marine manufacturing, along with innovative materials and processes to help achieve greater fuel efficiency. Composites One, along with experts from the Closed Mold Alliance, have answered the call for improved marine performance. By using closed mold processes like Vacuum Infusion Processing (VIP), marine manufacturers have effectively decreased overall product weight and increased speed and performance in their production goals.

Composites One customer, Scout Boats, has leaned on its partnership with Composites One to transition to closed-mold epoxy infusion to manufacture its boat hulls. By using vacuum infusion with carbon fiber and epoxy resin they can achieve benefits over the traditional open mold composites manufacturing process that uses fiberglass and polyester resins.

Scout Boats produces lighter, stronger hulls

With lightweight carbon fiber and epoxy construction, Scout Boats has produced hulls with improved stiffness, strength, speed, and performance, all with reduced weight and better fuel economy. Across the industry, the growing popularity of black hull surfaces has prompted the use of infusion processes using carbon fiber and epoxy resin in boat production. The materials generally enable the production of lighter, stronger, and more fuel-efficient products. Further, the use of epoxy resin results in a product that requires less maintenance to sustain the aesthetic surface finish due to its reduced cured shrinkage.

Marine manufacturers that adopt vacuum infusion in their composites manufacturing processes also gain the benefits of increased production rates with less waste and environmental impact. Based on the many benefits of using carbon fiber and epoxy resin with a vacuum infusion process, we expect to see more boat manufacturers adopt the method for continuous boat production in the marine industry.

Read more about how Composites One customer, Scout Boats, is manufacturing boats with reduced weight while increasing the hydrodynamic performance and improving dark hull cosmetic surfaces.