Resin Infusion Process - Boat Building - Epic

Hey All,
I have been reading more and more about the Epic and how it is made with the resin infused hull and all. I was looking for other boat companies that used resin infused hulls other than sail boats and found a couple...

http://www.tridentboats.com/

goto the spec section and then hull construction, very interesting reading...

and

http://www.nitroboats.com/z9/


This article is pretty informative...
GREAT RESIN INFUSED ARTICLE

Just thought I would share..

I thought Hatteras was building one also?

Anyone else know of one??

There are some big yacht builder out there using it and then the odd part or two are made with this process in the hydro world but these are all super limited production. What we have done that is different is that we are using this process on a mass production scale and not on a one off basis...

Have you seen the Trident process and product.

It's pretty crazy! They have a dual jet powered option that is awesome!

I was involved in the Trident development(the resin infusion side) and they are turning out some pretty innovative stuff over there. The dual jets are crazy powerful and perfect for the river out here in the southern desert. It is the ultimate party performance boat but not a good choice for wake sports, unless you enjoy the 200' jets of water as an obstacle to every wake to wake jump...

Hatteras yachts is building their new 60 using resin infusion, azimut yachts also uses it.

So Trident uses the same infusion process as Epic?

so how many boats has epic sold?? just kidding

wow your a good sport chris

Trident uses a very similar infusion methods but for very different purposes. The process we use is really catered to mass production and strength. A few companies use infusion to get tremendously strong large parts but it is a painfully slow lay-up process and they are only able to make an extremely limited number of parts per year. When you are building several parts every few days out of the same mold you need to have a method that is quick/duplicatable/and effectively produces great parts every time. We have spent a lot of time making sure the infusion process we use is quick and we can verify the integrity of the composites every time to ensure the strength and durability of every boat we ship. It took a looooong time and lots of green backs to get things working to my specs but now things are really humming along and I'm glad we made the extra effort to put out superior composite structures.

How long are you letting the hulls cure in the mold for? I have seen lots of "hot spots" from removing the hull from the mold to fast. It sounds like you are removing them pretty quickly and using the same mold versus have lots of the same mold...Just curious.

The Trident is crazy bouyant. I was on one down in Havasu a month or so ago and it planes immediately, even when over weighted. We ran it through a huge wave and the thing rose to the top like a cork after the entire deck went under.

I think the buoyant feeling on the Trident comes much more from the hull design and its light weight vs the infused core. It is an amazing boat that performs as advertised but it is certainly purpose built. If you like kickN it at 100mph down the river with 30 of your closest friends then the Trident is the only way to go

And without getting into too much detail Bo, we do remove our parts rather quickly from the molds but have specially formulated epoxy/vinylester resins to keep the hot spots from happening(that was a battle we fought early on though). Trident Boats and other infusion companies fight the hot spot issue in a completely different manner. We crafted out techniques to work for OUR production methods and they are working just great

There is a guy down in Havasu that is trying the infusion process on a couple sets of Campbell Boat molds (the old 23' V-Drive daycruiser) and is actually watercooling the mold! I saw his first boat and it was crazy smooth and taken out very quickly! I have also heard that Brunswick is working on a watercooled infusion process for boat molds to use in their North Carolina factory! They say they can make boats faster with less materials which makes a cheaper priced boat!

Water cooling is a great way to extend the life of your molds but I don't see how it would help in preventing surface defects. These defects are caused by masses of resin that expand and then contract after cooling and leave marks on the exterior gel-coat. Heat is a necessity with most resins for cross-linking the molecules in the resin to produce rigid structures. If you keep the mold and part too cool then cross-linking may not occur properly and you will be left with a weak part. Having said that, who knows what materials these guys are using with water cooled molds. It take a looong time and a LOT of effort to create great processes like these so if they have found something that works...GREAT! The more advanced composite boats there are out there the more the public will see how good the technology is and thus demand it in their own new boats...