When your product is found around the world on such diverse vessels as the finest megayachts, government patrol craft, and utilitarian commercial fishing vessels, efficiency and quality are essential. Freeman Marine Equipment Inc, which offers more styles, sizes, and shapes of cast aluminum watertight deck hatches than any other manufacturer, is also known today for custom-fabricated doors, hatches, portlights, windows, and specialty closures that offer unique style, design excellence, and superior sealing performance.
"As a custom supplier, we configure every single door using standardized component modules, as its own unique door -- one door at a time," said Mark Rogers, Research and Development special projects engineer for Freeman Marine. "We have long recognized that we needed to find a faster and more efficient way to meet the sizing and feature needs of our customers for flat panel doors."
Several years ago, Freeman began carefully examining adhesive options. Although the growing market acceptance of adhesives as a cost-effective alternative to welding was intriguing, Freeman Marine''s roots and expertise are in aluminum welding, so some obvious questions arose about how well an adhesive would perform. Rogers sought assistance from Lord Corp, a leader in structural bonding of metal. In concert with Lord® Engineered Adhesives'' distributor, Ellsworth Adhesives, Lord account manager Tom R. Reynolds began working with Freeman Marine to prove adhesives as a viable option. The goal was to verify that Freeman Marine''s double-skin mill-finished aluminum door skins could be adhesively bonded to an extruded aluminum panel frame and withstand the rigors of the blue water ocean environment.
A Proven Solution
Proven in a variety of end-use markets -- including more than 50 million cars, trucks, and specialty vehicles worldwide, as well as 100,000 watercraft -- Lord Engineered Adhesives provide high performance, durable bonds in a variety of metal assembly applications, including high-strength bonds to aluminum, steel, and other metals.
"Lord Engineered Adhesives are a proven solution that replace or reduce welding, bolting, riveting, and separate sealing steps, as well as improve appearance," said Reynolds.
Adhesives seemed to be the perfect solution for Freeman Marine''s panel construction requirements. For this application, when compared to mechanical fasteners and welding, structural adhesives widely distribute stresses, act as a sealant, reduce noise and vibration, offer excellent durability, help prevent corrosion, and maintain the original mill finish quality of the panel''s exterior surface. According to Reynolds, Lord was able to show that a well-designed adhesive joint would match the service life of welds and mechanical fasteners and give Freeman Marine the appearance and productivity benefits they were seeking.
All-Important Testing
Although the Freeman Marine technicians quickly recognized the ease as well as the significant time and dollar savings associated with adhesives, proof of strength and durability had to be confirmed. So Freeman Marine challenged their production team to literally "break down the door." A contest was held that involved taking a sledgehammer to a welded door and to a panel using Lord Engineered Adhesives. Another competition included mangling a door with a forklift. In both cases, the adhesive-bonded components matched or outperformed the welded components.
Based on these initial positive results, Freeman Marine conducted further documented testing and then sought acceptance from their customers that bonded doors would meet their needs. Using the phrase "Adhesive Bonded Construction (ABC)," Freeman Marine began educating the marketplace about the value, outstanding appearance, and durability afforded with adhesive bonded panels. Simply, Rogers said, the proof for clients is in the numbers.
"Using adhesives reduces the cost of door panel fabrication by as much as 35%," said Rogers. "Not only do adhesives reduce the amount of filler material and labor required when doors are painted, but they allow for a totally smooth, unblemished, non-distorted panel that we can otherwise only obtain with costly grinding, if the panel is of welded construction."
Integration of adhesives into the business will allow Freeman Marine to increase productivity to better meet the needs of production-oriented boat builders, according to Rogers. In fact, the company recently constructed a new 3,250 sq ft facility to house a new laminating press and fixtures to be used in its expanded operations.
"Adhesives are our future," said Rogers. "Not only will they provide a better product for our clients at a reduced price, but they will allow us to supply marine-grade weathertight doors to new markets -- value-oriented applications in non-marine, industrial, and commercial applications."