Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Resin Recommendation required for complete novice

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic36149.aspx

By FingerPickinRic - 4/5/2020 10:02:58 PM

Hi all,
I am undertaking an R&D project to reinforce a curved wood surface with Kevlar. It will need a resin surface of some sort that can withstand regular strikes against a metal edge.
The kevlar will be reasonable secure against the surface, but the resin will need to both bond and seal the surface.
The clarity of the finish is not critical and ideally, the surface should be machinable or at least able to be smoothed with sandpaper or varying grit.
In terms of application, I was hoping not to have to cast, but i'm not sure as to what finish can be achieved with a brush.

I can't give too many specifics due to IP, sorry. All ideas greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Ric
By FingerPickinRic - 4/8/2020 4:40:48 PM

 
Warren (Staff) - 4/6/2020 2:29:11 PM
To meet your requirements of sandability and impact resistance, I would almost certainly say a rigid laminating resin such as our EL2 Epoxy Laminating Resin

You will be able to coat the surface a couple of times if necessary to get a smoother finish and it can be sanded once cured.  Although epoxy in its own right isn't great at load spreading from a narrow impact, it is quite a hard material and combined with the kevlar underneath, it should absorb some of the energy before it gets to the wood.  Over time this is likely to be destructive to the resin surface and hence would loose efficiency over time but it should extend the life of your wooden part. 

Obviously the more layers of material, the more energy it would absorb.  The resin would also be suitable to bond the kevlar onto the wood surface as well killing 2 birds with one stone so to speak.

How effective it is would depend on testing to see if the extra lifespan is worth the extra cost and time adding the composite laminate?


Thanks @Warren (Staff), EL2 would certainly be the cheaper option. I shall make that my first port of call. I don't intend to use a particularly thich top coat of epoxy, so the hope is that most of the forces wil be transferrede into the kevlar.