Advanced Structural Development for Naval Hovercraft Ramps

C. Raymond Hunt Associates, Inc. and our team partner KaZaK Composites propose to address the redesign of LCAC bow and stern ramps by developing a conformable toughened composite structure. Several key requirements for bow and stern ramps are to reduce weight, reduce corrosion, mimimize ship impact, increase durability, and equal or exceed current structural requirements. A stiff toughened composite structure will meet the load requirements and eliminate corrosion. With the proper laminate schedule it will also provide added ramp support during loading/unloading. In addition the redesigned ramps must not impact LCAC operations or require costly hovercraft modifications. Our team specializes in the development of automated manufacturing technology for advanced composite structures, with particular emphasis on both VARTM and pultrusion. We will develop designs using components whose 3 dimensional shape requires Hunt"s VARTM expertise and 2 dimensional shapes utilizing KaZaK"s unique capability to pultrude low cost damage resistant composite structures, a technology developed to reduce impact damage related maintenance for Navy landing craft. A system optimized for pultrusion production will reduce the cost of the system components to an absolute minimum, approaching raw material cost, if sufficient quantities of similar items are purchased.