SUPER YACHT MADE WITH RENPASTE™
30 March 2003 - Huntsman Advanced Materials

The 44 m yacht was commissioned by a Middle Eastern customer through one of
Vantico’s Italian distributors, Model Resine.

The yacht required a superstructure mould for the roller bar measuring 15m x 6m. This was produced through a joint venture with model makers 3VU, composites constructors Festa and Model Resine. It was the one of the first times RenPaste had been used to produce such a large mould.

There were two construction stages for the project. First, the mould was made by 3VU direct from digital data supplied by the designer, using reverse engineering techniques.

This greatly reduced the time and costs involved.

The complete mould consisted of eleven individual 300cm x 200cm x 70cm sections. The negative slightly undersized polystyrene model of the superstructure was built and then each of the individual mould section was coated with two 17mm thick layers of RenPaste, a mix of XD 4563 grey resin and HV 4503 hardener. Some 2000 kg of paste was used in the project, dispensed through a meter/mix dispensing machine at the Model Resine laboratory in Turin.

The paste models were then CNC machined quickly and easily and the finished surface was so even that no flaws were detected. “The whole process took just three months as opposed to at least six months, if a wooden model had been built” says Umberto Dimichele, from 3VU.

After polishing, the 11 mould sections were sent to Festa, who specialise in building
second composite parts, for the second stage of the process. Because of the huge
dimensions of the mould, Festa adopted advanced aerospace production techniques
involving high temperature and pressure cycles applied by means of an autoclave.

The final production process utilised RenShape’s XD 4535/4536 epoxy laminating system, together with reinforcing fibres to form the composite part, and this was autoclaved at 45°C for the initial curing and then at 80°C for post-curing. The mould was supported by a metal frame while in the autoclave and showed excellent resistance to heat and with good dimensional stability.

The finished mould components were then shipped to Barcelona for final assembly. The yacht was completed and launched in 2001.

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