It seems I recall commercial builders saying that a 50/50 ratio of cloth to resin is ideal (I might not be right on those numbers) and that it's very difficult to achieve with hand layups but quite possible with vacuum bagging and infusion.
If that's the case in a bare composite that hull weighs 25 pounds there would be around 12.5 pounds of resin.
Epoxy appears to weigh about 10 pounds/gallon so that would mean 1.25 gallons of epoxy in that 25 pound hull.
If I had to guess the $600 upcharge from Swift for an Epoxy hull would be a mix of material and labor costs. And all the material might not be the resin as they'll need to add something for UV protection.
As for it being stronger and more robust I'm not convinced it's necessary. At some point you have to look at the real world evidence and decide what's strong enough. Small scale "strength" demonstrations might not apply to real world use situations either. (I haven't watched Swifts marketing video that Glenn linked yet).
When I decided to build a house I learned there were a lot of different ways to do it and that some ways were stronger than others. As soon as I'd decide on one method because of the strength benefits I'd discover another variation that was even stronger. I finally stopped to look around at the construction methods historically used in this area and realized that despite many of them being "weaker" than the methods I was considering that those houses were not falling down every time the wind blew.
Part of me wonders if a large part of the reason for Swift experimenting with epoxy is with an eye to the future. As regulations get tighter it might become cost prohibitive to have facilities that use vinylester. By starting to work epoxy into the process now they can work out the wrinkles on a small scale before ramping up to full production. Their current marketing would have their customers primed for it.
Alan
If that's the case in a bare composite that hull weighs 25 pounds there would be around 12.5 pounds of resin.
Epoxy appears to weigh about 10 pounds/gallon so that would mean 1.25 gallons of epoxy in that 25 pound hull.
If I had to guess the $600 upcharge from Swift for an Epoxy hull would be a mix of material and labor costs. And all the material might not be the resin as they'll need to add something for UV protection.
As for it being stronger and more robust I'm not convinced it's necessary. At some point you have to look at the real world evidence and decide what's strong enough. Small scale "strength" demonstrations might not apply to real world use situations either. (I haven't watched Swifts marketing video that Glenn linked yet).
When I decided to build a house I learned there were a lot of different ways to do it and that some ways were stronger than others. As soon as I'd decide on one method because of the strength benefits I'd discover another variation that was even stronger. I finally stopped to look around at the construction methods historically used in this area and realized that despite many of them being "weaker" than the methods I was considering that those houses were not falling down every time the wind blew.
Part of me wonders if a large part of the reason for Swift experimenting with epoxy is with an eye to the future. As regulations get tighter it might become cost prohibitive to have facilities that use vinylester. By starting to work epoxy into the process now they can work out the wrinkles on a small scale before ramping up to full production. Their current marketing would have their customers primed for it.
Alan
