"composite"

Steve W at last a straight shooter not playing semantics, thank you Steve ! Agree 100%

Par, good marketing establishes trust, that ad calling a ply boat composite says to me those brokers aren't worth a phone call. That's not clever.

 

Going by the definition,
"Composites are formed by combining materials together to form an overall structure that is better than the sum of the individual components". It is a general word.

Thus;
Clay reinforced with straw (fibers) is a composite
Wood itself is a composite by the combination of fibers and cellulose
Concrete is composite of cement and aggregate
FRP-Fiberglass reinforced plastic is a modern composite of fiber and matrix

By the addition of another material to form a structure that is better than the original material, we have;

Plywood is an enhanced composite.

Reinforced Concrete- concrete reinforced with steel bar, the concrete taking the compression load and the steel taking up the tensile load.

Glass ply over wood. is an enhanced composite since the outer (glass) skins which has the greatest stress takes up the load and the wood or plywood receives the shear stress. Technically, a cored (sandwich) composite.

It is composite alright but shall we call them advanced composite? I guess not, only "enhanced".

Advanced Composites alludes to the use of more exotic material like aramid, CF, prepreg, synthetic cores (paper or plastic) and the process used like infusion, oven curing, filament winding. Exotic cars, windmill blades, driveshafts, are advanced composites.

Going a step further, the aerospace guys use the same materials but ups the process a bit by using autoclaves and fiber placement machine (though rocket nozzles are still filament wound but with more advanced resin system). The guys like to call anything that flies "Aerospace Composite".

Marketing buzzwords or trying to be technically correct?

 

Establishing trust is a customer service trait and has nothing to do with marketing. Advertisements in general and marketing specifically, have a simple and well established goal, to make you remember the company and/or product name. In this vein, many paraded things have been said over the years, enough so, that legislation has been required in this country to control "snake oil" salesmen and false product claims.

Plywood is a composite, so not actually a deception, just clever market research. This applies to many products and services. For example, the word epoxy in a product will sell more of that item, so if you can incorporate a smidgen of the bisphenol molecule into the formulation, you can put the word epoxy on the label and sell the crap out of it. A good example of this is Pettit's "Easypoxy" paint. It's actually a modified polyurethane, with a smidgen of the bisphenol molecule, but it's not epoxy - just a single part, modified polyurethane, that enjoys much better sales figures because of the name. Welcome to the world of marketing.

 

About time to call this done.
Too many of us have demonstrated a few of the different kinds of composite as an English exercise.

 

We can argue till the cows come home as to what is and what is not a composite but what the OP was noticing was more about intent, the brokers know damned well that a plywood boat does not fit into what is widely understood within the boating community as composite construction. It doesn't matter one iota if its common practice to pull this crap in the advertising world, it is still aimed at deceiving people to achieve some goal, its distasteful.

 

I agree, its like watching a political debate.

 

Only "low tech" and "high tech" composites exists.

 

.... But we haven't even started on "syntactic foam" yet...

 

Thanks Steve (again) and upchurchmr my point exactly, Par just because you can doesn't make it right, do you add a metre of carbon to a tiller handle so you can call the boat carbon ? I know people do it and when I find out their deceit my estimation of them hits the floor never to recover.

"syntactic foam" ? Oh god.

 

Oh the other one is slipping in the epoxy word with vinyl ester PAR you'll like that one I'm sure, technically correct but in the real world it's ******** and when I see it I take everything from that point on with a handful of non composite non bisphenol salt !

 

So much groovier to apply a syntactic foam surface interface than ... aaawww I'll just bog er up wiv a few quuueeeys .......

 

I look at it simple as this, it may be "plied", but its still all wood. I am a hardwood guy, I do understand the other term more fitting, and that is engineered wood. Thats a better label, cause no way can i get away with saying I am installing composite flooring.

Barry

 

Unless you break things down to their subatomic bits, isn't everything technically a composite? The term is too broad to be useful, unless coupled with additional descriptors. My exwife is a composite of all the things in life, you'd rather not have in yours.

 

haha true! but even subatomically some materials are more expensive than others come build or buy time! Don't misunderstand though, I love ply, and have no problem with it. Yeah million dollar composite boat would be nice, but I like realistic price on a fantastic material that will outlast my needs and lifetime when done proper. Heck! the top 3-4 boats I would love to build are all ply. Your cooper jr is ply right? thatd be right up there for me!


Barry


Barry