Hi,

Just to show that sometimes the advanced composite construction materials can be put to other use..

This idea came up when making Twaron -Carbon mixed fabric to make Scales (sides) for a small folding knife .. (The Pingo Model from Spyderco)




Thee scales were made by first laying up a double layer of Twaron fabric with Epocyl (Carbon nanotube enhancer) enhanced EL Epoxy
This was done as a straight up hand layup and cured with vacuum on. (Between two polished and release treated aluminium plates, my normal setup for making small flat CF items) The Aluminium plates were originally water-cooling plates for a rather large wattage power converter, so now they can be heated by pumping hot water through them for post curing ..

Then I bonded a layer of Aluminium hexa core (smallest size) to the flat pieces, again using Epocyl enhanced EL .. The Epocyl  at least triples the bonding strength to the alu.

Last step was filling the voids in the honeycomb with normal coloured EL epoxy..

Sanding polish and thats it :..

The little folder was made with fibre reinforced nylon scales, only about half the thickness of these, which has transformed the knife totally, because the new scales are vastly more rigid and the knife feels like twice the quality.. and Spyderco's are not really "cheap knives" from the factory ..

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)

Very nice. "outside the box" thinking, a great use of materials.

Hey,

It's been a very long time since my last post, but this one I like so much that I feel the need to tell it

Awesome idea, awesome looking, awesome jealousy from me I especially like the fact that the core looks like engraving, but flush with the rest...

Any updates of your nanotubes study? I would be thankfull if you could expose your conclusions, if you already made your comparative tests.

 



 


    A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse

Thanks ...

I have only had time to do some very basic, rather unscientific tests on using the NanoCyl/Epocyl carbon nanotube additive.

It looks like the claims of superior strenght and bonding are very real, my simple tests show at least a doubling of the crush strenght of a block of resin, with the 1/6 addition of the Epocyl additive.

I still have not done any real testing on combinations of regular carbon-fabric and Epocyl.

The scales for the knife were made from the first test sample, but they were too thin and flexible to test ... They would simply bend more than 90 degrees in the tester without breaking and not return to completely flat after....... hmmm.

I suspect the Twaron content combined with the Epocyl makes for exceptional impact resistance and ability to flex without breaking.

Right now i have a test sample postcuring, using 6 layers of standard 200g twill weave bonded with Epocyl enhanced EL-2 and a similar sample with just normal EL-2

The 1/6 ratio of Epocyl does not seem to thicken the EL-2 epoxy significantly when mixed with hardener, but it remains to be seen how IN-2 reacts.

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)