Incat Wave-Piercing Catamaran Essay -- Innovation Research Paper

Describe your selected innovation/invention and discuss the design practice used in its development. Use appropriate images to illustrate this section of your report. Relate your discussion to the industry standards that were being applied at the time. Did this innovation challenge existing standards? Incat’s wave piercing catamarans are an innovation of the catamaran through design and materials. The original catamaran where made to be a fast and stable two hulled boat, although on choppy seas they where unable to maintain this stability. Incat’s catamaran uses wave-piercing technology to increase the catamarans speed and stability, through the innovation of a wave-piercing center bow, Incat has never patented its center bow design, relying instead on keeping ahead of the technology in this field. The wave piercing catamaran’s centre bow, is designed so that the buoyancy in the forward portions are reduced, due to this when it is approached by a wave due to the lack of buoyancy in the forward proportions of the bow it results in the bow piercing through the water instead of riding over the top. Due to this it provides a smoother ride and reduce the boats wave making resistance that slows down the boat, The two outer hulls of the catamaran known as a SWARTH is designed to minimize the area of the hull cross-section at the oceans surface, this minimizes the surface area that wave are able to hit. This results in higher speeds and greater stability especially in rough seas. The Incat wave piercing catamaran idea began in 1983, Phil Hercus in 1984 began development of a wave-piercing catamaran. This design combined the hull design called a SWARTH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) with a center bow designed by Phil Hercus... .../teamaustralia/vessels_wave_piercing_catamaran.htm [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014]. Hhpinsight.com. 2014. Incat’s LNG Ferry – ‘World’s Fastest Ship’ | HHPInsight.com. [online] Available at: http://hhpinsight.com/marine/2013/06/incats-lng-ferry-worlds-fastest-ship/ [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014]. Incat.com.au. 2014. Incat Home. [online] Available at: http://www.incat.com.au [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014]. Powerhousemuseum.com. 2014. Wave Piercing Catamaran - Australia Innovates - Powerhouse Museum. [online] Available at: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/australia_innovates/?behaviour=view_article&Section_id=1080&article_id=10089 [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014]. Wikipedia. 2014. HSC INCAT 046. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_INCAT_046 [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014]. Wikipedia. 2014. Swarth. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarth [Accessed: 24 Feb 2014].