By cumberdale - 4/9/2018 8:06:08 AM
Dear community,
I have been using Easy Composites XT135 and XC110 Pre-Preg systems for a few months now and have steadily improved every step of the processing chain. The results are very promising indeed, and there are quite a few things I know for sure I can improve further. Now, I feel like I am approaching a juncture in the coming weeks where I will need to decide if I will commit fully to ooa Pre-Pregs or rather stick my nose in different areas of carbon fibre before deciding which route to take. The main issue I have with these ooa Pre-Pregs as of now is good reproducibility of high quality parts.
I live in the south of Germany, Stuttgart, and we have a flourishing carbon fibre industry thanks to the strong automobile/racing sector. I have been in contact with a couple smaller/medium-sized composite manufacturing companies to get their take on mould making, Pre-pregs, resin infusion and so forth. The general consensus seems to be that ooa offers good results, but more often than not their results are too inconsistent to be a serious alternative to autoclave Pre-Pregs or resin-infusion. I do not want to use resin-infusion because of the hassle it is, and because the part I want to make is relatively small compared to other projects. My main question therefore is whether I should stick my nose into curing Pre-Pregs under pressure or not. It does not necessarily need to be an autoclave, it could be a pressure-bladder with 2-3 bar instead. How much does pressure above 1 bar really improve the quality of the final parts? Are we talking a few percentage points, or are we talking a boost from 70% (ooa) to 99% (2-3 bar) reproducibility of high quality parts? I know it is possible to produce high quality parts with ooa Pre-Pregs. But is it absolutely possible to achieve great reproducibility of high quality parts with ooa Pre-Pregs, or is curing under higher pressure that much superior in terms of reproducibility, enough to seriously consider it?
I would love to hear your opinion on that matter! Thanks.
|
By Warren (Staff) - 4/10/2018 9:07:15 AM
If you are struggling with the backing ply, you can cut it into pieces as long as you overlap. When we did the video, you will see we used lots of pieces and overlapped them to help with getting the fabric to conform to the shape of the mould. And As you can see in that, the shape was quite complicated so the cut pieces helped massively.
|
|