Araldite shear strength for marine components

Huntsman Advanced Materials has been working with Italian yacht maker Persico to build a pioneering design of Volvo Open 70 racing yacht, for the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.

Built at Persico SpA, Nembro, Italy, the ‘Abu Dhabi’ is a 70-ft long, ergonomic vessel, designed to weigh less and be more robust than other yachts in its class.

To achieve the high levels of component endurance and performance required to compete in some of the world’s longest and most demanding yacht races, Persico has used Araldite AW4859 / Hardener HW4859, a high performance structural adhesive, to complete the yacht.

This adhesive fixes together different highly loaded components, from bonding titanium fittings to the yacht’s carbon structure to assembling the hatch, rudder bearing sleeves and components, bow sprit, chain-plate, mast and keel structure. Another Huntsman adhesive, Araldite 420 A/B, is also used to bond other details on the boat.

"We selected Araldite AW4859 / Hardener HW4859 for its proven ability to deliver outstanding performance to marine applications. When it comes to delivering the exact levels of stiffness required to ensure the ‘Abu Dhabi’ performs well in racing conditions, Araldite AW4859 / Hardener HW4859 is certainly living up to our expectations,” said Mark Somerville from Persico.

"We have been particularly impressed with its shear strength, coupled with its ability to withstand heavy loads, intensive strain and extreme conditions, as well as its bonding properties to the components and substrates on our racing yacht.”

This is a structural adhesive designed for composite bonding, which is also suitable for bonding dissimilar substrates such as metals or thermoplastics. The key features are the sag resistance, gap filling properties up to 4mm, high temperature resistance (140°C) and good moisture and chemical resistance. It also exhibits fracture toughness and lap shear strengths up to 35MPa on CFRP and GFRP.