25% Weight Reduction in Watercraft Hull with Long Fiber Injection Technology

Reduce 25% weight in watercraft hull with LFI Technology

Market: Sports & Leisure (watercraft, spa cabinets), Agriculture, Transportation, Building and Construction
Polymer: Polyurethane Composites (Long Fiber Injection)

Key performances:

Strength and Light weight

Reduced system cost vs. Spray-up & SMC technologies

100% styrene free

Designers and manufacturers of large parts are often challenged to find new ways to produce lighter-weight parts without sacrificing strength and still offering improved performance... at a lower cost.

In this example, Long Fiber Injection Technology (Polyurethane Composites) allows the cost effective production of a personal watercraft hull that meets the required performance criteria plus offers a superior finish.

Same Strength with 25% Weight Reduction

The hull produced with the LFI process weighs 25% less without any loss of strength through:

An increased amount of glass (to produce highly reinforced structural parts)
An inherently lighter PU composite material vs. polyester

Long fiber injection technology allows production of lighter weight parts while delivering the same level of stiffness and impact properties as traditional spray-up processes.	Figure 1: Impact Modification property of Baydur processed via LFI in comparison with Polyester processed via Spray-up or SMC

System Cost Reduction with Styrene Free LFI:

Long Fiber Injection Technology is a 100% styrene free process allowing manufacturing cost reduction through:

Resin material savings by foaming the resin: from 30 to 50% while keeping the same level of performance
Process Efficiency
- Higher productivity and less labor than spray-up (from 4 hours for spray-up to only 10 minutes with LFI technology!)
- Lower tooling costs than SMC