Hi guys, based on your experiences for years in vacuum infusion, what type of release agents do you recommend?
There are waxes, liquid waxes, pva, semi-permanent.. what type of product and brand have you been successful with?
We are open to talk about other products here that are not available in easycomposites? there are a lot of brands.

Regards.

Feel free to talk about other brands here.

We recommend semi-permanents for infusion due to the reliability and ease of release. If you have watched our bonnet making video, you will see the bonnet top layer pretty much fall out the mould with no effort - that is due to good application of a semi-permanent release agent.  Our version we rate highly and can be found here: Easy-Lease Chemical Release Agent

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Definitely semi-perms, there's just no competition. Different generation of release system. Like comparing an iPhone to a Nokia 3315.

I want to try a spray release agent composed of dimethyl polysiloxane and Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
Will it work well during the infusion? my mold is composed of epoxy gelcoat, they also tell me that it is compatible with epoxy resins.
Some waxes are "silicone-free", this spray is part of the silicone group? what is the problem with silicones?

About these semipermanents release agents, some guys apply some coats of wax after, also wax and pva after, do you recommend this?

Regards.

Can't advise regarding the PTFE release agent, don't know anything about it or what it is normally used for. If it is a composite release agent then it should be fine, if it's normally a casting release agent or concrete release agent or something like that then it may or may not work. Realistically, there's so many excellent release agents available for composites use that I just wouldn't bother messing around experimenting. 

The trouble with silicones is they contaminate things, especially spraying them. You will get silicone overspray all around your shop and start finding weird issues with contaminated surfaces and materials. If you spray paint anything yourself, don't ever spray anything silicone in the same area. You'll have endless trouble with paint fisheyeing. 

As for wax, PVA, and semi-perms; occasionally there is a benefit to combining them. For example if I'm making a mould, I generally treat the pattern with a semi-permanent and then do a coat or two of release wax. This just adds a layer of security, as there are often several different materials being used on the pattern (ie. the pattern surface itself, barrier materials, filleting wax or plasticine, etc) and the wax may provide an easier release from one of those surfaces that the chemical release agent may not have. Certainly not necessary at all, one would normally get away with just a semi-perm on its own, just something I like to do personally.

PVA on the other hand is pretty old-school, but still has it's uses. For me, it protects anything that may be chemically incompatible. For example, trying to make a fibreglass mould off a surface that has been coated with a single pack paint, or perhaps even a rubber surface. The gelcoat would attack those surfaces if you just used a wax or a semi-perm, you need PVA to form a physical barrier between the two. Alternatively you may have a mould made with polyester tooling gelcoat and plan to layup an epoxy component in it, and in this case using just a wax or a semi-perm on their own could result in a stick and PVA is a good idea.

For the most part though, there's no need to combine them.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, I want to try these techniques with semi-permanent and waxes, also waxes with pva in infusions.

I have a question, is there a way to reduce the viscosity of the pva to use it with cloths as with waxes?