Epoxy Vinyl Ester? Pros and Cons?

[allan white]

In the past i have built a few prototype canoe hulls out of vacuum infusioned MAS (Manu.) epoxy. To eliminate ultra violet (UV) light degradation I have been planning on switching to infused Vinyl Ester. I recently looked at a canoe website that sayes they build their boats with Epoxy Vinyl Ester (E/VE).

Is this E/VE a new product? Or am I totally confused about epoxy/ vinyl ester? Is it UV sensitive like traditional epoxy?
Does anyone have experience working with E/VE?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Allan

[AVMan]

All these resins are made up of epoxy molecules reacted with adipic acid (I believe) to create vinyl groups on the ends instead of epoxide. In other words, a standard vinyl ester. I believe almost all vinyl esters are made this way, but I could be wrong (I believe there are some made from urethane backbones also...). Derakane vinyl ester resins are the same thing, so its nothing new at all.

[ondarvr]

Yes, VE has some things in common with epoxy, but it's more or less creative advertising.