Flex-Ride Night Raider Plastic Boat: The art of Widmer’s rotationally molded kiss-offs.

May 4, 2011 - PRLog -- US PATENT #6460478 ABSTRACT:  A rotational molded boat or equivalent floatable marine structure has parallel hull walls interconnected by rows of spaced apart, molded V-shaped connectors. The connectors are formed in the rotational molding process. One of the mold sections has a mold surface for forming one of the hull walls, said surface having one or more rows of V-shaped indentations projecting toward an opposite mold surface. The V-shaped indentations have apexes that are spaced apart from the opposite mold surface by a distance that, during the molding process, will fill with molten material to form a molded connection between the finished hull walls. In another embodiment, a lattice structure is assembled to the mold and molded in between side wall components of the hull.

Historically, boats made of wood, fiberglass or metals are rigid, providing no occupant protection from repeated wave impacts.  The Widmer plastic hull flexes and absorbs impacts produced at high speeds in rough water: the impact G-forces are absorbed by the hull instead of directly translated to the occupants.  The Widmer boat hull is double-wall rotationally molded out of high density cross-linked polyethylene (HDXLPE).  It employs Widmer’s patented kiss-offs for strength.  The kiss-offs are designed to produce a double-walled cross-section in high impact areas such as the hull bottom. Additional benefits of this polyethylene material are its toughness, the ability to absorb blunt impacts from rocks/debris, abrasion resistance and puncture resilience.  Furthermore, HDXLPE resists cracking, does not corrode, does not need paint – and it floats!

The Flex-Ride Night Raider is the culmination of Stanley Widmer’s lifelong search for a better boat hull.  Stanley’s boat racing experiences, marine industry experience and hull development are thoroughly covered in his book The Journal of a Businessman.  Visit http://www.stanleywidmerassociatesinc.com/journalofabusin...  The boat’s initial success has prompted interest from military, law enforcement and Coast Guards worldwide.  Commercial applications are also being designed and reviewed.

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About Stanley Widmer Associates, Inc. We Design, Engineer & Manufacture with Advanced Methods and Materials. Stanley Widmer Associates, Inc., founded in 1971, has offices in Staples, MN and is a leader in the Rotational Molding and Marine markets. More information about Stanley Widmer Associates, Inc. can be found at http://www.widmerboat.com/