I love the idea of the ProFinish cloth used for the surface layer of a part.

My question is- Can you air cure when using a ProFinish surface layer on a wet lay-up?

I do a lot of wet lay-up parts (all under full vacuum) in an oven. But some parts are to large for our current oven.

This is a side business at home. But I work for a aerospace company(GKN North America) and have 10+ years of experience using autoclave and non autoclave pre-preg. Also air cured part when doing a new part or tool mockup. So using a "pre-preg like" cloth, outside of an oven, if a little foreign to me.

Thank you in advance. You have a great site.

Tom

From what i understand about the pro finish, it is a normal cloth with a light splattering of resin on the rear, which when it cures during manufacture, helps hold the weave together and avoid fraying when you the customer uses it.

I dont see why it wouldnt cure at room temperature.  Ive used profinish in resin infusion cured at room temperature with no problems.

Thanks for the help.  I look forward to trying it and seeing the end results.

Thanks again!

Warren is totally right, ProFinish should be used in exactly the same way as you would use a dry carbo cloth which is that it can be cured at ambient temperature, laminated using wet lay, vacuum bagging, infusion, RTM etc. The resin 'spattering' on the reverse is very faint and dissapears once the resin goes through.

--Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

on a related note.... its mentioned that pro finish is sided i.e. 'there is a light splattering of resin on the rear'.

the binder will be surrounded by the resin when used and be made invisible.

as with you, ive used it both sides up and never found any defects. its gotton to the point now were i dont look at what side im putting face down

Our ProFinishCarbon Fibre 2/2 Twill has an uncured resin binder on it so when you infuse or wetlay, it cures and cross-link polymerises with the epoxy resin system being used.

That means you are highly unlikely to notice any surface difference whichever way up you use the material.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant