Ferrocement is a term for a concrete system from which ship hulls have been built since the First World War. Many sailing ship hulls worldwide were built with ferrocement concrete during and after the Second World War. The assembly was largely carried out by hand on the company's own premises using a trowel. The assembly was very time-consuming. Small and medium-sized shipyards built ferrocement hulls individually. When people in the navy talk about concrete boats today, they always think of this outdated ferrocement material and the time-consuming assembly.
WPE-DK UHPC concrete is definitely superior to this very old ferrocement technology in all technical and assembly aspects. WPE-DK UHPC concretes have been used for more than 25 years under the toughest wear and corrosion conditions in industries such as offshore, steel industry, chemical industry, coastal protection, harbour constructions etc.. UHPC concretes achieve a compressive strength of well over 200 MPa.
UHPC concrete is watertight from a layer thickness of 15 mm. UHPC concrete is completely resistant to salt water. In combination with a non-metallic reinforcement, one can speak of a generation ship in terms of the expected service life.
Today, WPE-DK concretes are processed as mortar, castable and shotcrete. UHPC concrete can be installed quickly even on large areas and complex geometries.
Industrial mass production of UHPC hulls is possible without any problems.
In recent years, UHPC lightweight concretes have also been developed that can be used for lightweight and insulating boat constructions.
