Magnum Venus Products’ delivers tailored, innovative fluid movement and production solutions that promote efficiency for its customers. In the marine space, Mastercraft, which has worked with MVP for more than a decade, recently experienced this operational elevation firsthand once again.

The Challenge: A Large Boat Line’s Production Tripped Up by Manual Processes

Mastercraft recently introduced a new line of large boats, adding to the company’s offering but detracting from production efficiency. The scale of the boats meant that extensive hand lay, a molding process that involves fiber reinforcements being laid by hand during composites production, and wet-out, which refers to coating individual fiber filaments with resin in a composite sheet, were required.

These labor-intensive and time-consuming processes were greatly slowing production time for this new line of boats. In fact, the company’s traditional hand lay and wet-out process took nearly four hours and 30 minutes per unit. To cut this time down and boost efficiency without sacrificing quality, Mastercraft turned to MVP and the Patriot High Volume Chop/Wet-Out System.

Leveraging the Patriot High Volume Chop/Wet-Out System to Streamline Production

Leaning on a depth of experience in delivering solutions that eased similar labor-intensive processes, MVP suggested Mastercraft adopt the Patriot High Volume Chop/Wet-Out System and encouraged the company to use the system on a trial basis to get hands-on with the efficiency it could bring to its operation.

The Patriot High Volume Chop/Wet-Out System delivers unmatched power, precision and modular versatility combined with robust construction and rapid access design for simple maintenance. The system leverages its modular nature to optimize its configuration for any need, helping reduce waste caused by overspray and overuse of materials.

The system exhibits a catalyst-to-resin variance of less than 1% compared to competitive systems with catalyst-to-resin variances of 25-30%. The precision of the Patriot metering helps correct quality issues like porosity and inconsistent thickness to produce a uniform laminate.

Finally, the system features an output capability of seven to 30 pounds per minute, helping Mastercraft keep pace with the demands of its new larger line of boats.

In addition to the Chop/Wet-Out Systems, Mastercraft also leverages a full suite of MVP’s standard equipment, including Gelcoat Systems, Adhesives Systems, and RTM Systems for closed mold applications, which features on-demand mixing at the injection head, an easy-to-use control panel, fully pneumatic controls, and more. Closed mold solutions allow for the shape of both the outside and inside of the part to be controlled, providing more agency in the production of larger boat parts, such as hulls.

Doubling Production with Efficiency from MVP’s Patriot Solutions

By adding a Patriot High Volume System, Mastercraft was able to convert those four-and-a-half-hour cycle times into cycle times of under two hours, literally doubling production efficiency when compared to the traditional hand lay and wet-out process.

“This efficiency brings tremendous savings in the form of labor, time, resources and more, allowing Mastercraft to be confident in innovating and adding to its offering without straining production or lengthening cycle times to the point of being inviable,” said Brad Bushey, Mastercraft.

To learn more about how the Patriot High Volume Chop/Wet-Out System and other innovations can bring similar production efficiency to your operation, contact MVP today.