Understanding Filament Wound Booms Vs Pultrusion
Why Filament Wound Booms are the More Secure Choice
Waco Boom is a leading manufacturer of fiber-reinforced booms, specializing in strong, insulated parts designed for use as jibs and booms on aerial devices. These non-conductive booms are designed to protect workers from electrical shock while they are supported in the air. Our filament wound booms are tailored for each aerial application, offering superior durability and performance. In this article, you will learn why aerial lift companies around the world choose filament wound booms instead of pultruded. Filament wound booms provide better safety, strength, and long-term reliability in demanding environments
What are Pultruded Booms?
Pultrusion pulls fiberglass strands through a heated mold to form a desired shape. Manufacturers use it to create handles, fence pickets, and other fiberglass parts with a constant cross section. It can also create beams, girders, ladders, and frameworks.
The pultrusion method is ideal for small, continuous parts with consistent cross-sections with high single-directional strength. However, this single-directional fiber alignment makes these components prone to cracking under multi-directional forces. Multi-direction forces are very common in aerial devices, such as torsional and side loads.
These cracks may not be visually detected initially and can affect the dielectric integrity of parts. These cracks allow for the ingress of moisture and debris that degrade the electrical resistance of the boom or jib. These cracks can also deepen until the fiberglass splits and becomes structurally compromised. Therefore, it is not ideal for applications that endure twisting or multi-directional forces that are commonly seen in the utility and tree care industries.
What are Filament Wound Booms?
Filament winding is a type of fiberglass fabrication that combines fiber reinforcement and resin by winding the fibers around a mold in a helical manner. It can be used to produce non-conductive products with a high strength-to-weight ratio and excellent corrosion resistance. Through advanced computer programs, the fiber angles can be specified to maximize part strength for each application, creating a customized part tailored to the end-user’s specifications. Further, filament winding can also be used to produce complex shapes such as parts with varying cross sections. The filament winding process creates layers of material to minimize the cracking and splitting that can occur in a pultruded part.
We manufacture our filament wound booms with a multi-step process that includes customized design, precise CNC filament winding, and rigorous quality checks. Our winding process uses a special close-molding process to achieve a high-density fiber-to-resin ratio for exceptional strength.
Advantages of Filament Wound Booms Over Pultruded Booms
Comparing filament wound booms vs. pultruded booms highlights several advantages of the filament winding process.
What are the Advantages of Filament Wound Booms?
Customization
The filament winding process allows our team at Waco Boom to customize fiber orientation for defined performance requirements. We then manufacture each filament wound boom to meet the client’s specifications and load needs.
Strength
Filament winding produces a finished product with superior structural integrity and higher shear strength than pultrusion booms. As a result, filament wound booms tend to have a longer service life.
Safety
Finally, our unique custom manufacturing process results in high-quality booms and lifts that allow workers to perform aerial work safely. This contributes to overall worksite safety.
Long-Term Benefits of Filament Wound Booms
You can expect to recover your investment in a custom filament wound boom. Because they are not susceptible to cracking, we have seen our equipment last 35 years and longer with proper care and maintenance
Learn More About Filament Wound Booms vs Pultruded Booms
At Waco Boom, we manufacture customized non-conductive parts for aerial devices, including jibs, links, and booms. When you compare the pultrusion method vs. filament wound booms, you will see the advantages of our winding process. Request a quote to learn more about the benefits of filament wound booms.