Composites telescopic structures
CompoTech, composites structural manufacturer has developed a composite telescopic mast system for marine, mobile,and land-based, applications. The development had been the catalyst to launch a new venture, CompoLift.
In marine, a project was realised for Eduard Kessi to prove his inflated Wing Sail (IWS) technology. The inflated wing sail design requires the telescopic mast to be operational under load to reduce the sail area from 100m2 to 60m2. The mast itself consists of seven concentric tubes, weighing approximately 200kgs. These sections telescope from 4.5m to a height of 21m using a winch system with an external block and rope.
This proof of concept is used in conjunction with Michel Desjoyaux, world-renowned skipper and ambassador of the Michelin backed WISAMO Wind ship project. The scaled-down design is for a 100m2 sail test yacht. The adapted telescopic technology is also used for land-based applications such as police mobile surveillance. Mobile van units use the mast to deploy 16kg of visual and acoustic equipment to 7m using five sections. The total mast weight is 64kgs. The requirement, in this case, meant the rope and pulley system is internal to the mast to prevent any tampering or cutting of control ropes.
