Hardwire -- Steel/Plastic composite

[SheetWise]

In my searches I came upon a site called Hardwire (www.hardwirellc.com). Does anyone here have any experience with this? The video is good (a bit long), and has changed my view of plastic boats -- at least a little bit.

I'd be interested in hearing any comments or experience.

[solrac]

Maybe I'm too cruel, but it seems to me that this can work as a concrete reinforcement and just a great improvement for ferrocement hulls. Surely this kind of mesh is much more resistive than a plastic (roving) or carbon fiber mesh, no doubt about that, even, can't doubt about the protection treatment, the long term expected life before corrosion, even the certifications they achieved, but, as metal (whatever the kind of metal it can be made of) will have a folding & unfolfing resistance or maybe better callied "average folding cycle number" of about 1/10 - 1/20 - 1/50 of a similar plastic, think you will be in large trouble when in the middle of the ocean the metal strings of the mesh start making weird noises in the middle of the night caused by the bending promoted by waves bumping your hull....
A posible solution will be increasing the GRP thickness, reducing distance between frames or whatever it takes to control maximum flexion on the hull surface. I apologize again if I sound like Christophorus Columbus trying to be convinced by a constructor of a new tech Galleons made on a marvelous new material just discovered on 1491...
Another issue I can think, it's weight... no way it can be any lighter than plastic (may you float on a laser hull of about 100kg instead of 35kg?)
Haven't seen on their site any info on long term behavior of the product (or at least an estimated) for this kind of use

[SheetWise]

I was thinking of steel rope as a better analogy in terms of fatigue. The basic concept of strands and weave are more similar to steel rope than steel. I don't know how that would impact the ultimate failure strength of the composite though ... and was wondering about expansion/contraction in terms of the materials separating, etc.

[solrac]

yeap. thinking about the thinner the rope, thinner each string, the more prone to corrosion it will be.... on concrete design, the rebar corrosion is taken in account on calculations as a coeficient related to diameter of the reinforcements as it is on the minimun diameter allowance, deepnding on the agressiveness of the place...
maybe a stainless steel 316 or a titanium rope?