Pressed carbon fiber hull

[Coconnor31]

Does any manufacturer use a mechanical press when building a hull?

When buildig skis or a snowboard a press is usually used to achieve a higher psi, which squeezes more resin out of the part, giving you a lighter weight finished product. Would this transfer to a jet ski?

 

[McDog]

Lol. No. The expense would be astronomical for only a small difference in weight.

 

[ajmps1]

I think what he means is that it would be too involved to make a complex mold that could press out a full top or bottom deck. If you agree with seadoo and free form hulls the market is moving towards plastics it seems.

 

[Coconnor31]

Thats what i guessed about the mold. Probably want a hull to be sturdier too

 

[G-Body]

Effectively the press does the same thing as vacuum bagging the hull. Just vacuum bagging makes much more sense on something like a ski. Just for a rough estimate if you pull perfect vacuum you would get 14.7lbs per square inch but you won't get perfect vacuum. So if you have a 24 in by 60 in surface which is somewhat comparable to ski size that's 1440 Sq in x 10psi = 14440 PSI /2000 = 7.2 tons of pressure pushing on the glass. Not an exact calculation but gives you an idea