Alright, I gave the MTI hose a shot on a small test mold the other day and I must say that it is pretty impressive stuff! Not a drop of resin made its way into the vacuum line so I expect that this hose will pay for itself in a hurry on larger parts. Also, the finished laminate (4 layers of 3K 2X2 Twill carbon) was very, very light and very strong. I measured the carbon weight before and the finished part after and I hit a 58/42 carbon to resin ratio on the first pass. I'm impressed so far and am going to move up to the big mold when I return from vacation. The only thing that I deviated from on MTI's instructions was that I did the initial vacuum pull and vacuum drop test out of the resin feed line. That made that portion of the process just as fast as what it would be with a spiral tube.

Thanks for letting me know about the MTI hose Baja_Patient!!

I would be happy to post up the finished product when done. I am willing to bet that the results will be great with the MTI hose. I love the theory and am happy to put it into practice

Excellent! I am sure you will love the results. Yeah I tend to mix a little more than needed, especially on new and complicated parts.

Just be sure to follow the instructions, but its quite straightforward actually. Maybe document your process with some pictures for on here. Show all the naysayers how good the product is (lol no, I am not affiliated with them, I just think a good product deserves praise).

cheers

I just bought 30ft of MTI hose after taking a closer look. This hose looks to be the best thing to happen to Resin Infusion since the vacuum pump! I am very excited to give it a go. I'll error on the side of mixing enough resin to cover a normal infusion project and dial it back from there. Also, my resin is rated for a 45min pot life and 350cps. I expect that that will be more than enough time to mix, de-gas and infuse resin that is that thin.

Hey Turbo, as I was saying, I like to slow my resin inlet (by slowly opening the resin clamp on the feed line and bleeding it in), to ensure that everything is wet out. You place the mti hose around the perimeter of the mould (I would go all around the mould on this one) probably need 2-3 meters of hose. The resin has plenty of time to reach alllll corners of the mould and wet out everything before it gels, depending on what resin you are using. My pot life is by far long enough to degass the resin thoroughly and infuse slowly.

The MTI is designed as such, that resin will reach everywhere it is placed no matter what, no need for a catch-pot either. Once you have done it several times, it becomes easier to gauge the amount of resin u need. The catch pot is placed at a 1 meter below mould elevation, which results in a very high fiber to resin ratio.

OK, understood. Tjhanks !

Bit of a rubbish image but shows what I mean. The hose you can see is the vac line. The peel ply extends to cover the entire piece but the infusion mesh stops a couple of inches before the vac line. The peel ply and material provide the vacuum path but the extra resistance provided slows the resin down when it gets there to allow the full infusion to take place before the resin gets to the vac line.




When you infuse you use a specialist infusion resin with a very low viscosity and the resins I've used have a pot life of at least 45min at room temp (some up to 3hrs). As I mentioned previously it's best to do a trial first as you won't know how much to slow the resin down at the end or know how far the resin will infuse for your layup as the rate will naturally slow down the further from the infusion point it gets

Great input everyone! I really do appreciate it. It looks like it is plan B, with no spiral on the vacuum line and a meter of distance from the resin coupling to the pot. And I am VERY interested in the MTI hose. Does anyone know if it slows down the resin at all? Longer pot life needed for the resin?

If anyone has any other insight PLEASE do share

Hi Chris ! Just one question. (I have no experience with infusión, just thinking to start after many years vacuuming)




If you end the mesh before reaching the vac line..... how is the vacuum conducted ? Any peel pply joining mesh to vac line? If vac bag is in direct contact to mould, will not be any porous material to "breath" or drive the vacuum...




Thanks in advance !

I'd probably do something like B but without the vac line on the left and maybe finish the top and bottom hoses a little short too. I'd stop the infusion mesh a couple of inches short of the vac line to slow down the infusion to allow the rest of the part and the surface resin to catch up.

Do a test infusion with the layup you are intending on a glass plate to see how quick it will infuse, this will give you good data to calculate the position of the inlet/outlet and hoses

There are a few sharp angles in that area and may cause flow lines for the resin so you'd have to be uber careful to ensure no bridging

Chris