Distrupol’s Art-to-Part service aids development of award winning cleat lock

When leading UK producer of cleats for sailboats Clamcleats Ltd. was preparing to take the next step in product innovation, the company approached its long-term polymer supplier and technical service partner Distrupol for engineering support. Clamcleats’ objective was to develop a cleat accessory that would offer a new, higher level of control and safety in rope capture and release.

Branded the ‘Keeper’, this new cleat accessory has already won two product innovation awards: the Annual Design Award of the Marine Equipment Trade Show held in Amsterdam at the end of 2005, as well as the Segeln Award 2005, presented at the Hamburg Boat Show. The Keeper’s design overcomes the problem of lines being cleated accidentally. It also gives improved performance by being able to hold lightly loaded lines in the teeth of a cleat, even if it’s mounted upside down.

According to Sarah Walker, Design Engineer at Clamcleats: “Distrupol was committed to the project from the outset. In addition to material selection, Distrupol’s Art-to-Part engineering service supported us with material testing and moldflow analysis, together with design and engineering advice from initial prototyping through tooling to production, which were all completed in-house. This made a particularly valuable contribution in respect of the mechanism’s requirement to be a one piece moulding with integral double flexing element.”

The Keeper completely transforms the operation and performance of a cleat. When a halyard or control line is released from a cleat fitted with a Keeper, the Keeper will stop it falling back and re-cleating when dropping a spinnaker during a race or when unrigging a mainsail ashore. Moreover, the line lead-in makes cleating easier and is reassuring as it gives a positive click when a line is cleated or released. The advent of the Keeper expands the capability of conventional Clamcleat® rope cleats, allowing them to be used effectively on all control lines that require frequent adjustment.

Confirming the innovative and valuable nature of the Keeper, it was heralded joint winner in the ‘Deck equipment, sails and rigging’ category of the Annual Design Award of the Marine Equipment Trade Show held in Amsterdam at the end of 2005. The competition jury described the Keeper as “brilliantly reinventing the clamcleat to prevent unwanted capture of rope and its accidental release.” The innovation also won the Segeln Award 2005, the result of voting by around 4,000 readers of Segeln Magazine, for what they considered to be the most innovative products for the year. Incidentally the Keeper was the only piece of deck hardware to win an award, emphasising its outstanding originality.

Working in tandem with Clamcleats’ technical staff, Distrupol’s first task was to identify the material that provided the best match with the performance criteria of the part. Key was that the device had to withstand UV rays from the sun. Moreover, the material needed to stand up to the tough environment on a boat deck whilst showing excellent flex and fatigue properties and be resistant to the friction of running lines. This lead to the selection of Delrin®, a polyoxymethylene (POM) resin from DuPont, which offered the strength, flex properties, wear and UV resistance demanded.

The project involved the realisation of a unique all plastic mechanism that would allow lines to run freely through a cleat without the risk of unwanted capture, but with the application of backwards tension and downwards pressure on the line it would be securely gripped and held by the cleat’s teeth. Conversely, by simply lifting the line it could be quickly released.