Built by Persico at its Nembro site in Italy, the ‘Abu Dhabi’ is a 70 ft long vessel which is 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 demanding yacht races, Persico has used Huntsman Advanced Materials' Araldite® AW4859 / Hardener HW4859 adhesive to complete the yacht. The 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.
Araldite AW4859 / Hardener HW4859 is a new structural adhesive designed for composite bonding. It is also suitable for bonding dissimilar substrates such as metals or thermoplastics. According to Huntsman, the key features of this adhesive are its sag resistance, gap filling properties up to 4 mm, high temperature resistance (140°C) and good moisture and chemical resistance.
The adhesive is also said to exhibit outstanding fracture toughness and lap shear strengths up to 35 MPa on carbon and glass fibre reinforced plastics.
“We selected Araldite AW4859 / Hardener HW4859 for its proven ability to deliver outstanding performance to marine applications," explains Mark Somerville from Persico.
"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. 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.”
Another Huntsman adhesive, Araldite420 A/B is used to bond many other details on the boat.
