Robson "amerlite"

[ezwater]

Anyone have details on the nature of Robson's "amerlite" hull material? It's some kind of plastic with glass reinforcement molded in. I'd like to know the nature of the plastic and its repairability.

[marclamenace]

Same stuff as twin-tex.
Pretty tough to shocks, abrasion kinda OK, good until you break it and realize how hard it is to repair.
Esquif will go ahead and help with repairs when they can, but good luck shiping back a robson boat to manufacturer!

[ezwater]

Quite possibly, but I watched a Robson video where the amerlite boat was transluscent white. Esquif offers black, or painted black.

I wonder if Robson is using a different resin. I've googled for info but have not gotten anything specific.

[cheajack]

When Eli's dad patched my Zephyr, I learned that the material is a very coarse mat weave of glass and plastic 50:50. The plastic in the case of the Zephyr is black. When heated it impregnates the glass fabric and when cooled retains the shape of the mold. I guess you could get the mat fabric made with any color of plastic yarn.

[ezwater]

Yeah, the resin is polypropelene or some close derivative, and I doubt that the resin color of Twintex can be changed. That's why I wonder what they are actually using in amerlite.

[Jim P]

Esquif offers the mistral in black or green twintex. Robson offers Amerilite in Red and White. Like Cheajack said the "resin" is just poly fibers as part of the glass weave, the poly fibers melt and fuse the whole mess together when heated to the correct temp (around 400 F if I recall correctly). I suspect its just a matter of ordering the weave with the poly strands in different colors.

[ezwater]

Jim, did you notice that if you order an Esquif Mistral in green rather than black, it adds several pounds? That suggests it's paint.

I'm asking because information seems so sparse. Esquif, at least, is pretty clear about the issue. I recall seeing some amerlite "facts" in a technically oriented post long ago, but I can't find it.

[Jim P]

Ez,

I did not notice the weight diff. But I've seen them in green, and it was not painted.


BTW, you got me curious, so II googled it and it turns out there are many "flavors" of Twintex.

http://www.ocvreinforcements.com/solutions/Twintex.asp

Funny thing is, I opened the spec sheet for TWINTEX® T PP (second one on the page) and there is a picture of the Robson Homes. The unanswered question is color, they only list black and natural. Perhaps a colorant is added during the molding process to get green, red etc. That might be the answer for the heavier green boat.

[wetnobby]

I have repaired a number of Twin Tex boats and its a great material to work with.....
You do have to use the right technique, tools and materials though.

Flat flexible heater pads, standard composite vacuum bagging materials and raw material patches.

A Patch is placed to overlap the repair area, onto of this a piece of release film is placed, then layer of very thin flexible Aluminum slightly bigger than the patch is taped over, the heater element is then taped over the top, the absorbant layer and bagging film are then placed over the top and sealed to the boat...

Vacuum on, Heater on for 20 mins...allow to cool 20 mins strip off the above....

Repair complete....

Warning!! At the melting point the TWin Tex resin will boil, burn and become like a porous foam if air is allowed to reach the material surface...so a serious word of warning....dont put heat near twintex unless you have it bagged up correctly.....!!

Chris

[Sir Adam]

Thank you for sharing that!