Water clear polyurethane resin


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Ray Rogers
Ray Rogers
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Hi!
I have been using your resin for making small (circa. 50g) castings for vehicle indicator lenses for a year or so now. Whilst these have been acceptable I would like to reduce the air bubbles in the finished articles. I vacuum the resin mix for about 2 minutes at -1 bar and then pour as careful as I can. Would vacuuming for longer improve the finished item? 
[br]
I use silicone moulds and one item is small enough to vacuum once resin has been poured, the problem with this is as the vacuum pulls down the mould must compress and resin spills. Is there a better option please?[br]
Finally, I want to try an even larger item. I will make a silicone mould and I am wondering if there is a method of say vacuum bagging this to a) pull the resin through and b) hopefully resin air bubbles in the item?[br]
Pointing me to helpful articles would also be appreciated.[br]
Regards[br]
Ray
Warren (Staff)
Warren (Staff)
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a couple of factors to consider are how long your chamber takes to get to full vacuum and also pot life. I would suggest a good 5 minutes at full vacuum should be plenty to remove any air that is going to come out.  This is subject to having available pot life for the resin which with our water clear PU is ok at 12-17 minutes.

Is the silicone mould supported in a box? Supporting it may help prevent it being shrunk in the vacuum process. Alternatively, if there are no undercuts or features that could cause mechanical locking then moving over to a rigid mould may be a better option. However, the disadvantage is the need to use release agents and to think about how you will prise/release the part out without damage.

I' have not heard of vacuum bags being used in resin casting.  In theory you could modify an infusion type process to suck resin into a mould. However the design would need to be carefully though out so that the resin has paths to flow and also that the vacuum bag doesn't just press tightly against the mould surface leaving no where for the resin to go.  A variation could be on RTM light with a closed mould and the resin sucked into the void in the closed mould that way instead.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
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