By cvasilliou - 6/15/2018 5:42:00 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeeSsmsm9h0
lets say im making a mold exactly like this tutorial shows,but i want to make a pattern out from this mold with vacuum infusion.should i do anything different?the ionly thing im imagining to do is applying extra layers of coopling coat and some layers of chopped strand mat.have i thought it right?
|
By Hanaldo - 6/16/2018 11:21:18 PM
Just to expand on Oekmont's post with some photos, this is how you might go about that technique:
Layup the first half of the mould as normal, then when you do the next piece and remove the temporary flanges, use strips of sheet wax (slightly thinner than your tacky tape, so in this case my tacky tape is 3mm thick and I used 2mm thick sheet wax) on the solid flanges to create the channel (the joins between the wax strips can just be filled with filleting wax):
Once cured and demoulded, you'll be left with a channel on one side of your mould flanges whilst the other side will be solid:
It is important this channel is continuous all the way around the mould and finishes on the edges of your outer flanges, so that as Oekmont said you just run the tacky tape as normal on the edges of the mould and it meets up and seals with the tacky tape in the internal channels.Then before bolting your mould pieces together, you simply run tacky tape along the channels, and this seals the mould pieces together.
Then you can just layup and infuse as if it were a single piece mould.
Between pulls, you need to clean the tacky tape off the channels, which can be quite the task if the stuff you are using is anything like the Cytec stuff that I use. In all honesty, I don't know if this was much easier than simply grinding the excess resin off the outside of the mould after envelope bagging, but it did atleast use less vacuum bag and make the bagging process easier.
The other option is to not make the sealing channel, and just use automotive RTV silicone gasket between the mould flanges. This is also somewhat of a task to clean up between pulls, but it is my preferred method - it is just quicker and simpler and you don't need to spend the time building the channels into the mould. You do however need to be careful that you don't squeeze silicone into the joins of your mould, leaving you with a nicely encapsulated line of silicone on the seams of your finished parts!
All in all, it can be done and there's things you can do to make it work a bit better. But I haven't found any solution to make it as quick, neat and tidy as pre-preg.
|
|