Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Project: River-Taxi Project_Part 6_Material for the hull

Selecting the right material for the hull of boat or any other water transportation is crucial. The information about the material should be revised a few times before it could be selected. Selecting the wrong material may causes flaw in the design and disaster.

In selecting the right material for the hull, three common materials in boat manufacturing are selected to decide which material the most suitable for the design. The materials are wood, aluminium and fibreglass. All sort of aspect should be studied in order the come out with the most suitable material. The characteristic of the wood, aluminium and fibre glass are listed as below:

Wood
Wood usually been seen as the material for the boat. Wood has good floatation, increasing the buoyancy of the river taxi. Besides that wood is strong material and it is flexible, making it easy to be altered in shape. However wood have its own weakness, which is rotting. From the interview made, a boat that uses wood it could sustain up to 10 to 15 years only before the wood rots.

Aluminum
Aluminium is lightweight and this is crucial for the river taxi design. Additionally, aluminium has good strength and it does not rot. However there are still weaknesses in aluminium, which is corrosion. Corrosion is chemical phenomenon that occurs on metal. Not only it would make the appearance of river taxi bad, it also causes leaking to the hull.

Fibre glass
The use of fibreglass in boat manufacturing becomes very popular nowadays. This mainly due to its strength property, which is relatively strong. Besides, fibreglass is also durable compared to wood or aluminium. On the other hand, fibreglass is economical and affordable and this is the factor why fibreglass is widely used nowadays. Fibreglass is a type of polymer; therefore it would not corrode or rot.

As for conclusion, the suitable material to be chosen for the hull is fiberglass. Fibreglass has greater advantages for safety, buoyancy and maintenance.

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