Portsmouth based composites specialists Magma Structures says that it has delivered three of the world’s tallest carbon composite free-standing masts.
The rigs are designed to withstand bending loads of more than 40Mn, more than twice the load on a Boeing Dreamliner wing. The masts were ordered by a German shipyard and are destined for a sailing superyacht.
Built at Magma Structures’ waterside manufacturing facility near Portsmouth, the masts have taken over three years to develop, test, design and build using advanced composite manufacturing processes. Over 70 people have worked on the build of the rigs, including an in-house team of specialist composite design engineers.
The rig concept was designed by Dykstra Naval Architects in the Netherlands and the load analysis and engineering drawings were compiled by Magma Structures’ in-house engineering design team. Each mast is able to rotate using systems mounted on ‘wings’ at the side of each of mast, adding to both the design complexity and build challenge.
This story is reprinted from material from Magma Structures, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.