Development of Composite Watertight Doors and Hatches for Navy Ship

WebCore Technologies, Inc. proposes to develop and deploy a lightweight, composite, watertight door system for the Navy ships in this Phase II SBIR project. WebCore has teamed up with Mafo Holtkamp and Bath Iron Works (BIW) to accomplish this goal. Theprincipal objective of this project is to develop a lightweight, durable and fire-resistant composite door panel to replace the current stainless steel panel in the Mafo door system. The Mafo door system has demonstrated that it requires little or nomaintenance, thus providing significant cost saving to the U.S. Navy. Consequently, Mafo door system has been specified for the DDG and LPD class ships and are being considered for other class of ships. However, the Mafo door system is relatively heavy andcan benefit from a lightweight, composite door panel. In Phase I of this project, WebCore, working closely with Mafo and BIW, demonstrated the feasibility of a composite door using its patented TYCOR fiber reinforced foam sandwich panel. Phase II work willfocus on design refinement, manufacturing process development, qualification testing as well as installation and shipboard testing of this lightweight composite door system. It is expected that a lightweight Mafo door system can be installed in manyweight-critical ships such as carriers and amphibious ships and will provide significant weight saving and cost saving due to reduced maintenance. A low-cost, lightweight, maintenance-free watertight door can be marketed to commercial shipbuilders andboatbuilders. The lightweight, durable and fire-resistant TYCOR panel technology developed in this project has numerous commercial applications in marine, transportation and industrial markets.