AERONTEC LANDS SICOMIN DISTRIBUTOR RIGHTS
Leading South African composite materials supplier, Aerontec, has landed the distribution rights in South Africa for Sicomin high-performance epoxy resin systems.
Graham Blyth, Aerontec MD said that Sicomin’s competitive pricing and excellent lead times were just two of the stand-out features that convinced him to pursue the distribution rights.
“Sicomin’s lead times are one of the best that we have encountered and are a huge advantage for us and our customers in South Africa,” said Graham.
“Sicomin are also able to offer us a wide range of epoxy products, many of them unique in the market,” he added.
Customers in South Africa will benefit from rapid access to Sicomin’s most advanced epoxy systems, including the GreenPoxy® bio range with the highest bio content of anything similar on the market, flexible, clear, infusion, foaming and fire retardant products.
Sicomin will initially target the boat building sectors in South Africa. “We are confident Aerontec’s superb sales experience in the region, combined with a prompt and reliable distribution service, will appeal to many marine manufacturers”, comments Philippe Marcovich, Sicomin’s President.
SeaBubbles flying water taxis!
A vision to create an eco-conscious transport solution for the world’s urban waterways has come to fruition with the support of Décision SA (Switzerland), a specialist in the development and prototyping of complex composite structures, and Sicomin (France) a leading formulator and supplier of high performance epoxy systems.
The SeaBubbles project is the brainchild of hydrofoiling yachtsman Alain Thébault and champion windsurfer Anders Bringdal.
The SeaBubbles are based on a futuristic hydrofoil design that glides silently above the water when the craft reaches 12km/h. A clean charging electric drive system converts solar, wind and water power so the vessel does not generate any CO2 emissions.
Décision SA, part of the Carboman group, working both with SeaBubbles and Sicomin, has so far completed the first of five SeaBubbles water taxi prototypes and these were launched in June 2017 on the River Seine in Paris. The boats were delivered in record time with material specification, design analysis and production achieved in less than four months. The remaining four prototypes began service in Paris in September 2017.
Working alongside the SeaBubbles team, Décision analysed the initial design and delivered a production ready tooling and composite manufacturing process.
All of the SeaBubbles composite parts are produced using a vacuum infusion process where the sandwich structure comprising of reinforcement fibres and a natural cork core are infused with Sicomin’s GreenPoxy® InfuGreen810 advanced resin system.
InfuGreen 810 contains 30% carbon content that is derived from plant-based origins. It also has extremely low viscosity at room temperature.
Sicomin has formulated the advanced bio product to support manufacturers producing parts for mass production using injection or infusion techniques and the system is available with a variety of hardeners making it suitable for small to very large components. InfuGreen 810 also holds DNV GL certification, a marine industry standard, providing extra assurance of the products quality, efficiency and safety standards.
Sicomin also supplied a range of complimentary materials to provide a package of infusion specific products including glass fibre multiaxial fabrics, PVC foams with bespoke perforation patterns for infusion, release agents and epoxy spray adhesives to securely position dry fabrics in the moulds.
SeaBubbles is committed to providing their water taxi service at the cost of regular taxi journey and plans to operate in 50 cities within the next five years. Following on from the success of this first phase of the project, a larger 15-seater vessel is also planned for construction later this year.