FIBRE MECHANICS INVESTS
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05 Sep 2019
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FIBRE Mechanics new oven was designed in-house
Composite boat builder FIBRE Mechanics has invested in a new 48m hull oven at its Lymington factory.
The oven will be used to cure carbon fibre pre-preg yacht hulls and decks and was designed by the in-house project team.
“We constructed our first pre-preg oven here in the Lymington factory over 25 years ago when we were building a 90ft carbon cruising yacht,” said Gary Vaughan, director of operations. “This new oven has come together far quicker than that one and requires a lot less energy to get up to temperature.
“It’s good to see we have learned something over the years.”
Assembly operations
The new oven has a retractable roof to allow use of the overhead gantry crane during assembly operations and can be sectioned into smaller units as required.
At present it is partitioned to form a 34m oven for the hull of a new project starting this month and a 14m oven for a large vacuum table, currently being used to manufacture bulkheads and structure for the Gunboat 68 catamaran.
Powered by electric heaters, with 15 separate heat inlets, the new oven is capable of raising the temperature to 105° centigrade.
Temperature and vacuum pressure can be controlled, monitored and logged across all component surfaces for cure cycles that are often in excess of 48-hours duration.