purpose it has been tested to more than 23 million load cycles – 150 years in service loads. By contrast, DNV GL’s standard requirement for yacht rigging certification – of essentially the same product – is a mere 100,000 load cycles. There isn’t a yacht afloat that has sailed through more than 23 million tacks and gybes, which shows how unlikely it is that Carbo-Link rigging will ever wear out through fatigue.
CL Restrap
on site singlehanded and they solve the inherent drawbacks of bundled cables on boats, so the technology was adapted for yacht rigging. Super- tough and durable as well as ultra- strong, Carbo-Link’s CL Solid rigging has a service life of 15 years or more, given proper service and maintenance, can be inspected and repaired on site without unstepping the mast and without any specialist equipment, doesn’t need a cover and never has to be sent back to the supplier for servicing.
Carbo-Link’s solid cables are also used for seismic strengthening of buildings in earthquake zones, which is a great testament to their impact resistance, longevity, immunity from stress corrosion and toughness as well as their tensile strength. By post-tensioning parts of the structure with solid carbon cables, it’s possible to increase a building’s seismic resistance by a factor of six. Another key niche application for Carbo-Link tension members is providing the strength and stiffness in helicopter blades. Reliability is absolutely crucial here, for obvious reasons, so Carbo-Link’s entire factory is aerospace-certified. Back in the civil engineering sector, CL Solid is used for hanger bridge cables. To gain certification for that
Top: a variety of Liebherr cranes use solid carbon cables
supplied by Carbo-Link. This solution was adapted to become CL solid
yacht rigging. Above: CL Restrap was originally developed to reinforce historic
buildings – it is also now used in yacht structures. Top right: the first hanger bridge to be fully
suspended with carbon cables, using Carbo-Link’s CL solid
bridge cables in partnership with sbp, spans 80m
Originally a civil engineering solution for reinforcing old buildings and deployed to great effect on a historic traditional wooden truss roof built in 1466, CL Restrap is another Carbo- Link technology with clear potential in sailing. Layers of thin carbon fibre tape are wrapped around a beam to form discrete shear strap elements. The flexible nature of thin carbon fibre tapes means it is simple to feed through pre-drilled holes or slots in the structural member that is being reinforced. The number of tape wraps and level of pre-stress are determined by the level of strength enhancement required. The tapes have little build- up, leaving plenty of room for additional external infrastructure, such as fire protection.
You’ll find CL Restrap on high- performance multihulls as well as historic buildings. In the 12-strong fleet of Decision 35 catamarans that race on Lake Geneva, it’s used to attach crossbeams to floats. These boats have been raced hard for more than 15 years, proving the longevity of the material. A further advantage of CL Restrap is its stability and strength across a wide temperature range. In real-world applications ashore it performs reliably from -20°C to 140°C with virtually no thermal expansion or contraction, so it can comfortably handle any temperature fluctuations that the marine environment is ever likely to throw at it. Not only that, but it’s designed to last for more than a hundred years.
CL Torque
Carbo-Link has a strong track record in motorsport technology too, supplying pressure vessels, chassis tie rods and drive shafts to Formula One and Le Mans teams. Much of that work is shrouded in secrecy
because it delivers a competitive advantage but the drive shaft technology has once again been transferred to sailing. Scaling up from racecars to superyachts, Carbo-Link’s torsional foils can withstand an incredible torque of 90,000 Newton metres. That’s equivalent to the maximum power output of 75 Bugatti Veyrons. Similar technology is now being used in torsional forestay applications for new builds and refits.
CL Ellipse
Innovation doesn’t always come to Carbo-Link’s yacht rigging solutions from applications in other sectors. Sometimes it flows the opposite way. The company has been deeply involved in the America’s Cup for two decades, working closely with Alinghi and supplying rigging and other components for every Cup challenge since 2003. One major R&D breakthrough that came from the America’s Cup was the invention of elliptically profiled solid carbon rigging, which can be shaped into whatever profile the application calls for, reducing both drag and vibration. It’s a custom-tailored product and the shape of each cable can be carefully optimised to suit the specific sailing programme of each client. CL Ellipse was far ahead of its time and only in the last few years has its drag- reducing potential been fully realised.
CL Damper
CL Dampers also come from yacht rigging solutions and find more and more applications in the civil engineering world. As these dampers are not mass dampers, which have to be specifically designed for special frequencies and amplitudes, CL dampers can be pre-planned in every construction from the beginning and are also used for steel constructions. CL Dampers can be taken off of the shelf and installed directly without expensive modal analysis. Having established a range of proven and industrialised products, R&D remains at the core of Carbo- Link. Dr Winistörfer still lectures at ETH Zurich as well as heading up the company’s structural engineers and materials scientists. They’re already working on some next-level yachting innovations that will be revealed in due course. Watch this space.
www.carbo-link.com
q SEAHORSE 65
SBP/LORENZ HASPEL
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