Hello from really sunny England, I could do with some help guys, could anybody on here tell me if it is possible to create resin infused MDF board with a metallic substance in the composite.  I am working on a project and am interested to know if it would be possible to add magnetic particulates to the resin before infusing the MDF.  And if so, would this be a costly affair on top of the resin infusion ie would your require different machinery etc???

Thanks in anticipation.

Robbie

I have never actually tried this so I don't know whether it would work or not, but in theory you could add iron powder to the resin to create a dielectromagnetic. There are 2 possible issues I can see though. 1 is that resin is obviously not magnetic, and therefore you are relying on the particles of iron powder to create the magnetism that you want. This means you need an iron powder that is quite pure, as impurities like carbon etc. will affect the magnetic field. 

Like said you will need to do some tests.

I'm not sure of its magnetic properties compared to iron as a powder but iron oxide is used as a pigment in plastics manufacturing,

this would be much finer than iron so would disperse better.

We sell iron oxide and iron chrome at work so I maybe able to supply information if needed.

HI Robbie,

Thanks for the comments guys, Chris, I am confident MDF is quite porous when unsealed.  I am very much liking the idea of iron powder.  Thank you guys.

Ah, see I read that and assumed you meant infuse a laminate on TOP of the mdf... I can't see you successfully infusing a piece of mdf at all, let alone with any filler powders. Mdf may be porous, but it is already a matrix of its own... There is no path to accommodate flow like there is in a woven fabric. 

Interesting pointy, thank you

You CAN get MDF to absorb quite a lot of infusion resin, just like wood can be "stabilized" by soaking it in Infusion Resin in a vacuum.  I use that a lot to make "stabilized wood" for knife handles e.t.c.

BUT! .... You would need EXTREMELY fine iron particles to get them to "follow the resin" into the MDF.. I've had even pigments stay on the surface of certain types of wood, effectively being "filtered" from the resin by the size of the pores.

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