Material for the fabrication of sails
First Claim
1. A sail comprising:
- a number of panels of material, each panel comprisinga laminate including a unitary film and crossed monofilaments in a flexible elastomeric polymer matrix bonded to said film, said panels together forming a sail having a head, a tack and a clew.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved reinforced laminate for use in sails or other flexible sheet or membrane applications utilizes a pull-truded thin lightweight reinforcing sheet of unidirectional extruded monofilaments in which the reinforcing sheet or sheets form one or more uni-tapes laminated to a polymer film such as Mylar, or other extended sheet of material. The monofilaments are uniformly embedded in the uni-tape via an elastomeric polymer matrix, with the reinforcing sheet, when incorporated into sails via lamination resulting in sails with reinforcing monofilaments having diameters 5 times less than conventional strands or threads. The use of small diameter monofilaments greatly increases the monofilament-over-monofilament crossover density, resulting in a dramatic increase in shear strength, and Youngs'"'"' Modulus, with an accompanying dramatic decrease in weight. In one embodiment the improvement in specific modulus over conventional sail laminates is about six-fold. For example, at only one-third the weight, stretch resistance is two times better. In a preferred embodiment, autoclaving is used in the lamination process to rid the laminate of voids which dramatically reduce shear strength by as much as 30 percent. Alternative void-free laminating processes include a silicone interliner/heated platen technique.
98 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A sail comprising:
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a number of panels of material, each panel comprising a laminate including a unitary film and crossed monofilaments in a flexible elastomeric polymer matrix bonded to said film, said panels together forming a sail having a head, a tack and a clew. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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Specification