Hey.
I'll make a trunk to a Volvo in carbon fiber ..(its about 1500*1000 mm)
There is an outer and an inner mold, I wonder what you think I should have the thickness of the laminate.
Think I'll have to have single laminate because the laminates will be facing each other in several places.
I'd appreciate if I got some laminate proposal, I enclose pictures of molds and a fiberglass hatch that I have done.
 Can you build with the diol behind the surface mat to bring down the cost?
Will laminating, infusion, and your epoxy.
I am going to glue the pieces together, both across the whole but also in the middle.
Thanks for your help.
Magnus from Sweden

 

Hey Mag,

Here's a link to a previous post that may help you.

http://www.talkcomposites.com/26/What-do-I-need-to-make-a-complete-set-of-custom-carbon-fibre-panels-for-my-project-car

Hope it helped.

 



 


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

Thanks.

How about 1*200 carbon 1*300 kevlar 1*200 carbon...

Is that stronger and stiffer then 1*200 carbon 1*300 carbon 1*200 carbon?

Hi.

Kevlar would be usefull for better impact resistance than carbon.

Also consider that diolen has also a better impact resistance than carbon, and at a fraction of the price.

 



 


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

Hi Magnus,

For the outer and inner layer of a two skin moulded car panel (boot, bonnet/hood, wings/fenders etc.) I would say that a total of 900g of reinforcement would be an absolute minimum and really I would be expecting more reinforcement than that. When we make panels using the Soric core we can get away with only 400g of reinforcement because the core materials spaces these two skins apart and so gets a lot more out of them (stiffness-wise) than you would get if they were closer together. In the laminates you're suggesting (either 900g of carbon or 900g of carbon and kevlar) you're laminate is actually only going to be about 0.9mm (for the carbon) or 1.1mm (for the carbon and kevlar) which is pretty thin. I'm not saying that it's too thin but it's at the very  bottom-end of what would be functional.

How about 1*200 carbon 1*300 kevlar 1*200 carbon...

Is that stronger and stiffer then 1*200 carbon 1*300 carbon 1*200 carbon?

The 100% carbon laminate would be stiffer, the carbon and kevlar laminate would be fractionally thicker (because kevlar is a slightly lower density material) but would be slightly less stiff (because kevlar has a lower tensile strength than carbon) but would be considerably better in the event of a crash or impact (because kevlar has a much higher elongation-to-break property than carbon). Putting the kevlar inside the carbon is certainly the place to do it because its lower tensile strength will have less impact in the there (acting more like a core material) yes its impact resistance would be just as effective from inside the laminate.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Hello.

I wonder about soric, isn`t there a risk to see trough the 200g carbon when u use a soric?

How about Diolen?

But i think i can`t use diolen on the inside, there is many holes and edges, i read its very difficult to get it smooth..

Magnus

Hi Magnus,

If you went with a laminate of 200g carbon | 2mm soric | 200g carbon then you *wont* see through it. I understand why you think you might but we have made many parts using this laminate (including the bonnet in the new video we're doing) and although it is possible to see tiny pricks of light if you hold the part up to a bright light, there really is no way you can see anything like this in normal life.

Regarding diolen; yes, like Kevlar it does make things difficult to trim. This is just one of those problems that will never go away because if a fabric has a very high elongation-to-break property then it won't ever trim easily.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Hello Matt.

Thanks for all help.

maby 2*200 cf and 2mm soric and 1*200cf then..

If i choose singel laminate, what do u rekomend then? if i make it atleast 1.1 mm..

I will start with 1 profinish 200g cloth....

Magnus

Hi,

Here is some stuff I learned from a previous post in this forum:

If you build a sandwich panel, you should try to "balance" your laminate. Using the same amount of layers on each side of the core. For example 1*200 carbon/ 1soric / 1* 200 carbon. This would prevent laminate to deform during cure.

Good luck

 



 


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

if your kevlar is inside the laminate, then i would make a template of the mould then use it to trim the holes on the kevlar before laying in the mould. You can also trim the edges millimeter perfect once fully in the mould.  Kevlar cuts neatly before infusion with the kevlar shears.

Cutting kevlar is just plain nasty after infusion as the threads just bounce off most high speed tools and wont sand either. This leaves a rubbish edge. However, running a brand new very sharp blade round the edge of the part once trimmed does get rid of most of the kevlar fluff.