Hi all,

I'm new to this site. I am very new to making carbon fiber parts as well (haven't done it yet). I have purchased my carbon fiber parts to date, but am looking to cut some costs out of my program. I am looking to make flat panels, curved panels and more. Any advice would be very helpful!!

Hi RRE, welcome!

Well my first bit of advice would be to purchase an infusion kit from EC. If your looking to make top spec sheets with a perfect finish then this is the way to go... Also if you look after the kit it will also hold its money and if you find that infusion is not for you then selling it and making back most of the money will be easy!

Next I would get a brand new sheet of 6mm thick toughened glass with a beveled edge in the size you desire. If you have the extra cash then get a large sheet (1200mmx1200mm) for future use, this is also a good size if you want to produce a carbon/composite sheet of 1sq m.

Also familiarize yourself with chemical release agent as its the only thing that will produce perfect finishes and reliable releases under the above mentioned conditions...

Kev.

Hi RRE,

Welcome to the forum.

Kevin's right, for your flat sheets, resin infusion is really the way to go. Laying out your laminate, consumables and bagging is all pretty straight forward on a flat sheet so it's a good (and rewarding) place to start. A Chemical Release Agent (like Easy-Lease) is certainly the way you need to go in terms of stopping the laminate from sticking to the glass sheet, nothing else will work.

Curved panels would be just the same process although you'll have a lot more trouble finding a curved sheet as a mould surface. Taking some sheet like polypropylene and fixing it onto a frame to hold it at the desired curve angle is a good start. From there you could either use that directly as your mould surface (no release agent would be required if it was polypropylene) or you could use a moulding system like Uni-Mould to make a rigid mould off the curved sheet. If you're planning on making a lot of these curved sheets then making a ridid mould in this way would be a good idea whereas if you only need one or two then using the curved plastic sheet directly would be fine.

I hope this helps.

--Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales