Advice Needed: Best Materials for Shipbuilding

[sxgrt]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently working on a shipbuilding project and need some advice on selecting materials. My goal is to balance durability, weight, and cost-effectiveness.

I'm considering options like fiberglass, aluminum, and steel. Each material has its pros and cons, but I'm unsure which will be best for my specific needs.

Could anyone share their experiences or recommend resources to help me make an informed decision?

I'm particularly interested in how each material performs in different conditions and its impact on maintenance.

 

[sxgrt]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently working on a shipbuilding project and need some advice on selecting materials. My goal is to balance durability, weight, and cost-effectiveness.

I'm considering options like fiberglass, aluminum, and steel. Each material has its pros and cons, but I'm unsure which will be best for my specific needs.

Could anyone share their experiences or recommend resources to help me make an informed decision on ship building companies?

I'm particularly interested in how each material performs in different conditions and its impact on maintenance.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

 

[spoz]

Each has its benefits and issues, and each is a good choice for certain purposes. It depends on what the ship concerned is supposed to do, ie what its mission is; and to some extent on its size.

There is much more to building a ship than selecting a material for the hull.

 

[Systems Adict]

Materials in shipbuilding

Firstly have you done the obvious & googled the characteristics of each specific material you are interested in ?
You simply need to phrase your question correctly & the algorithm will provide a response, with suitable data to back up that reasoning.

As a shipbuilder of over 30 years & from the top of my head...

#1 - Steel - It's relatively cheap, easily manufactured / worked into shapes, comes in multiple thickness & lengths. Has great strength capacity / is hard wearing.

#2 Aluminium - Again like steel, cheap / easy to manufacture into shapes. Can be a bit more expensive to put together due to the overhead costs of specialist training / welding, but is comparable. Downside is that it isn't as strong as people think & over time at sea, 'cracking' of welds is a common issue.

#3 Composites - (EVERYTHING from plastics / fibreglass (GRP) & Carbon fibre). While it can be used in shipbuilding, has inherent strength over weight capabilities (i.e only being less than a 3rd the weight of a comparable steel element, but just as strong), it is the MOST labour intensive & costly. Before you can build the vessel, you have to have a fully completed design, you then need to reverse engineer this, to add in structural elements / fixing points / seats / earthing arrangements for electrical equipment, etc. & then manufacture the formers that the material will be laid over, all before you can start construction. Composites are ideal for small pleasure craft & can help with weight reduction in larger military vessels for Topside / upper deck structure (such as masts / yard arms).

THIS is why most vessels these days are built from steel. Before this technology / material was perfected, for millennia we built ships out of wood or available resources that floated & didn't absorb water to the point that it became heavy & sank.