fiberglass re-bar

So I was at the local Menards recently and picked up a sample piece of pultruded fiberglass re bar and can't help but think there could be applications in the marine industry so thought I would bring it to the attention of folks here. The brand is LiteBar by LiteForm. It comes in 1/2" x 20ft lengths at only $4.99 per length and 2.5lbs per length. The website says its polyester but is also available in vinylester. Probably available at the other big box stores I would guess.

Steve.

 

Maybe you could use it as a ferrocement type formwork then have the shot blasted fiberglass strands for the hull

 

Fiberglass rebar is what the ferrocement movement needed back in the 70’s!
Combined with modern advances in concrete chemistry, one could possibly design a concrete hull that could be both cost effective and long lived.
Unfortunately, the word “ferrocement” has become tainted by some rather spectacular failures, and the insurance industry is definitely not on board with it.

 

Well they actually had this in the form of C-Flex... just leave the mortar out and get something better by using other fabric & resin
http://seemanncomposites.com/cflex.htm
Regards from Jeff.

 

I like the C flex concept, but am always wary of the chemical aspects of working with resin and epoxy, thus my interest in concrete.
I guess at this (late) point in my life, it’s silly to worry about some fumes, I’ve been breathing them for many years already!

I wonder about the aspect of making shapes out of the fiberglass rebar, any idea how the stuff could be bent like rebar?
Steel will make quite tight bends for the forming of beams, etc, and clever portable machinery make doing so a breeze.
I assume it can be fastened at intersections with epoxy, or some non metallic fiber that is compatible with concrete.

 

You can't bend it like steel re bar but other than that it works like steel re bar apparently. One use I have thought of for it would be around the perimeter of nets and tramps on a multihull for lacing to. This stuff would be great in a ferro cement armature except it is much too large in diameter, I have actually built a ferro boat in the early 1970s and the stringers were only 5 gauge hard drawn wire. I have also built a C- flex hull for a 24ft Fred Bingham Allegra, again the fiberglass rods within the c-flex planks were only about 3/16". The resin used was polyester marble casting resin to wet the C-flex to create a solid mold and from there on layup was normal.

 

Fibreglass rod could be great for stiffening up cut and shuts, dagger board boxs[rebar?], rudder /stern brace , and/or adapting sections from well made old wrecked boats , if it's available as rebar there we may have a rod here, good stringers, I had a brief search a few years ago, I'll check again. .., thanks Steve. regards