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Composites keep boats ice-free

By Staff -- Design News, September 21, 1998
 

Newton, MA--Do you own a boat? Do you live in an area where winters are extreme? If that's the case, you have two options. You can either take the boat out of the water and store it, which can be expensive, or leave it in the water and use a de-icing device.



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The Guest(reg) D-Icer, designed by Guest Corp., offers an in-water solution. It produces a powerful flow of water around a boat or dock that prevents the formation of ice. The submersible, motor-driven unit features a one-piece plastic shroud made with a long-glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene. LNP Engineering Plastics (Exton, PA) supplied the Verton(reg) MFX composite material.

"Because the shroud protects the propeller blade from damage by wood and other debris, we needed a material with excellent strength, stiffness, and impact resistance," says John Ekegren, Guest's president. "Verton MFX gives us those properties at a relatively inexpensive cost-to-performance ratio."

Suspended by two lines over the side of the boat, the D-Icer works by continuously propelling warmer subsurface water up to the surface. Since it lays under the water, "we needed a material that was available in bright colors for easy visibility," Ekegren notes. "It also had to be UV-stabilized so that any ultraviolet light that penetrates the water won't destroy it."

In addition, the structural composites have good dimensional stability to help maintain mechanical performance in wet environments. "This is important," Ekegren adds, "because the shroud forms the upper half of the motor housing, which contains a gasket. The stable material helps prevent leaks. And, most important, it resists sub-zero temperatures."

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