Crystal / Polycarbonate / Clear Boat

Hi,

Could you please tell me how clear boats are constructed? How are the polycarbonate sheets connected to each other? Is it flex glue? Could you please also share insights about how much load the glue can sustain? In practice I see the hull thickness is 25 mm.


In the second picture I see there are extruded portions. Are they also joined with glue or they were molded?


I will appreciate much if you can share your knowledge about designing and construction of these types of boats?

 

Funny, but everybody seems to be using those two photos....except this site...
Clear boat transparent boat clear bottom boat crystal boat glass boat https://www.limelightpolycarbonate.com/sdp/998833/4/pd-4906201/12987632-2298766/Clear_boat_transparent_boat_clear_bottom_boat_crys.html
So I would suggest contacting them...list price is $40K. FWIW, I would expect that they are thermo-shaped (a well known process in aviation) rather than stressed because of the negative effects of some adhesives on polycarbonate. From that point all you need is sufficient bonding area for clear adhesive sealants and limiting loading much like skin on frame construction.

But several vendors on Alibaba offer the same or different for much less...(caveat emptor)...

Enjoy The Waves With A Wholesale transparent polycarbonate boat - Alibaba.com https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/transparent-polycarbonate-boat_1.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.49f72104Bqsz9M

 

Note that the most common structural plastic glues don't do well around gasoline liquid or vapors. Diesel is okay, but gasoline ruins them.

Polycarbonate isn't too difficult to glue. It has a reasonable free surface energy and can be glued with common production techniques and materials. It is about the same as common PVC pipes. With a little pretreatment, such as UV light and solvent prep, the adhesion is very good. Best guess is they used a two-part methyl methacrylate (MMA) based glue and some very good masking and modest prep work. Glued-in-place thermoformed tabbing is a possibility.

There are about half a dozen international suppliers of MMA adhesives products.