Corrosion Resistance Is One Benefit of Composite Rotor Sails

It’s been more than six decades since high-performance, corrosion-resistant resins came into use. Today, the benefit of corrosion resistance that composites offer is just one reason that they’re used in many types of products. One example of a corrosion-resistant composite product is the composite rotor sail.

Corrosion resistance is vital to composite rotor sails

Rotor sails are spinning sails that create a pressure differential that propels a ship forward. This pressure differential is known as the Magnus effect. Rotor sails are cylindrical in shape, and large examples can be up to 30 m (98 ft.) tall and up to 5 m (16 ft.) in diameter. One of the most important considerations for rotor sail manufacturers is the smoothness of the materials used to make these devices.

Thanks to the corrosion resistance offered by composites, the smoothness that’s vital to rotor sails is easy to obtain and maintain. As a piece of machinery that’s primarily used on ocean-traveling ships, rotor sails are constantly in contact with a variety of corrosives. Two of the most significant corrosives that these devices are in contact with are seawater and wind. If these sails were made of metal, there’s a greater possibility that they might corrode. This corrosion would, in turn, reduce the effectiveness of the rotor sail. However, making rotor sails from composites allows for a high level of corrosion resistance, and this resistance keeps these devices smooth and operating at maximum effectiveness.

In addition to the corrosion resistance benefits that composites bring to rotor sails, there are several other significant benefits that they bring as well, which include:

• Lowering the weight of the device
• Reducing lifetime maintenance costs for the rotor sail
• Increasing service life of the sail
• allowing the sail to operate more efficiently

With all of these benefits, composites allow rotor sails to, in turn, offer significant benefits to the ships they’re used on. Composite rotor sails can help reduce the fuel consumption of a ship by anywhere from seven to ten percent. Therefore, the corrosion resistance and other benefits that composites bring to rotor sails may allow these devices to become a common fixture of ship design in the very near future.

Composites One is the leading composite materials distributor in North America

Does your business manufacture rotor sails or other products that require high levels of corrosion resistance? Then it’s extremely likely that your products are made of composite materials, which means you’ll need a steady supply of these materials.

The team at Composites One can help you get all of the composite material supplies your business requires. In fact, we have thousands of composite materials in stock from more than 600 suppliers. Additionally, you can rely on local service and on time delivery, thanks to the 41 locations that we have across the United States and Canada. Contact the team at Composites One today to learn more about all of the composite material supplies and other services we can offer your business.