Innovative Approaches to Marine Attachments

Background

A long-time customer specializing in manufacturing marine products, precision instruments, and boating accessories contacted PGC for assistance in creating a part for one of their assemblies. This customer has been supplying boat gauges, controls, and accessories for high-performance boats for over 30 years, and their products have become standard equipment for major performance boat builders. They chose to reach out to PGC for this new project because we had previously assisted in the development of a smaller version a similar part, which made the customer's engineers confident that we would understand their application issue and could provide a solution.

Challenge

The customer came to us with a request to attach a stainless-steel marine device to a fiberglass gunnel rail without using regular mechanical fasteners. Our main challenge was finding a different way to secure the marine device to the fiberglass rail, as using traditional mechanical fasteners was not feasible in this situation. PGC engineers utilized their understanding of different materials to discover an easy and cost-effective solution to this issue while preventing any damage to the fiberglass rail.

Solution

Since PGC had previous experience working on a smaller version of this part, they were well-equipped to handle this larger opportunity. After assessing the situation, our engineers determined that using very high bonding (VHB) adhesive would be the ideal solution in this new application. They chose VHB adhesive due to its proven strength, resistance to environmental elements, and ability to bond with various materials. PGC application engineers used the VHB adhesive to bond a stainless-steel marine device to the fiberglass gunnel rail, eliminating the need for traditional fastening systems. Before presenting our customers with a final solution, we developed VHB prototype samples for them to test in their assembly.

Results

The customer was happy with the prototypes' testing results and moved forward with minimal alterations. Once approved, we packaged the right amount of VHB adhesive and sent it to the customer. Upon receiving and applying the adhesive, they expressed their gratitude for PGC. They highlighted our application engineers for their ability to listen and apply their material knowledge to efficiently and effectively resolve the attachment issues for our customers' marine devices.