Metal stanchions serve as the vertical structural posts of many shipboard safety railing systems. Stanchion-supported horizontal cables provide a ship's crew with safety barriers along deck edges, platforms, and aircraft carrier elevators. Even though painted steel stanchions are widely used and accepted, the current steel design has several serious shortcomings. Fig. 1 - Carriers require stanchions when elevator is lowered Considerable maintenance is required to prevent corrosion of the steel. In addition, the metal posts significantly contribute to a ship's radar cross section, and are a source of electromagnetic interference when positioned near transmitting and receiving systems. The current steel stanchions can be permanently bent when bumped by aircraft carrier deck equipment. The use of FRP composite materials to replace steel in stanchions surrounding carrier elevators has been previously investigated. Stanchions made with traditional composite matrix materials such as polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy do reduce maintenance requirements associated with corrosion, and also reduce radar cross section and electrical interference issues. However, these materials result in stanchions that undergo a brittle failure, and therefore are too susceptible to catastrophic failure during frequent encounters with deck equipment. Matrix materials with higher strain to failure permit more damage tolerant stanchions to be constructed.
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