Skip to footer

Toyota unveils boat with multi-material construction

Toyota is known for its cars, but it also has a nautical department that makes boats. Its latest boat design, the Toyota-28 concept, was unveiled this week at the Japan Boat Show. 

|
Hiro Komae/AP/File
A passenger boat sails the Sumida river at the Asakusa shopping district in Tokyo (June 30, 2011). Toyota's latest boat design, the Toyota-28 concept, was unveiled this week at the Japan Boat Show.

Toyota is a powerhouse in the auto industry but its manufacturing capabilities stretch well beyond cars. Toyota also has a nautical department that has been building a range of boats for several years, mainly aluminum-hulled models equipped with engines borrowed from some of the firm’s cars.

Today we have a look at a preview of an upcoming boat from Toyota. The preview comes in the form of the Toyota-28 concept, which was unveiled this week at the 2016 Japan Boat Show.

What’s impressive about the Toyota-28 concept is its multi-material construction. Toyota’s traditional aluminum hulls offer great rigidity but they’re said to require advanced welding techniques that make them hard to manufacture in large numbers. The solution was a new multi-material hull design that combines Toyota’s aluminum and carbon fiber knowhow with fiberglass-reinforced plastic molding technology from fellow Japanese firm Yanmar.

Thanks to the low weight and strength of composite materials, the complete structure is not only rigid but also around 10 percent lighter than a comparable aluminum hull. And since the structure is made with molds, where resin is used as a bonding agent, more complex shapes can be created, which Toyota says can lead to improved maneuverability.

Though still a concept, the Toyota-28 is destined to enter production this October. It will be produced in partnership with Yanmar.

This article first appeared at MotorAuthority.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Toyota unveils boat with multi-material construction
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2016/0308/Toyota-unveils-boat-with-multi-material-construction
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe