Dear community,

I have been using Easy Composites XT135 and XC110 Pre-Preg systems for a few months now and have steadily improved every step of the processing chain. The results are very promising indeed, and there are quite a few things I know for sure I can improve further. Now, I feel like I am approaching a juncture in the coming weeks where I will need to decide if I will commit fully to ooa Pre-Pregs or rather stick my nose in different areas of carbon fibre before deciding which route to take. The main issue I have with these ooa Pre-Pregs as of now is good reproducibility of high quality parts.

I live in the south of Germany, Stuttgart, and we have a flourishing carbon fibre industry thanks to the strong automobile/racing sector. I have been in contact with a couple smaller/medium-sized composite manufacturing companies to get their take on mould making, Pre-pregs, resin infusion and so forth. The general consensus seems to be that ooa offers good results, but more often than not their results are too inconsistent to be a serious alternative to autoclave Pre-Pregs or resin-infusion. I do not want to use resin-infusion because of the hassle it is, and because the part I want to make is relatively small compared to other projects. My main question therefore is whether I should stick my nose into curing Pre-Pregs under pressure or not. It does not necessarily need to be an autoclave, it could be a pressure-bladder with 2-3 bar instead. How much does pressure above 1 bar really improve the quality of the final parts? Are we talking a few percentage points, or are we talking a boost from 70% (ooa)  to 99% (2-3 bar) reproducibility of high quality parts? I know it is possible to produce high quality parts with ooa Pre-Pregs. But is it absolutely possible to achieve great reproducibility of high quality parts with ooa Pre-Pregs, or is curing under higher pressure that much superior in terms of reproducibility, enough to seriously consider it?

I would love to hear your opinion on that matter! Thanks.