Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Wet laying Carbon Fibre

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic37107.aspx

By dilligaf76 - 6/13/2020 3:12:31 PM

Okay so some will know I'm new to Vacuum Bagging and I want to,  I think I'm right in saying a Wet Layup. I'm planning to coat my Pre Waxed polished mould with Resin, lay some Carbon Fibre, stipple it with a brush, might lay some Glass Fibre on top of it, stipple it some more with resin and then I'll be ready for the next steps.

Is this the right things to do next, lay Peel Ply, then Perforated Release Film, then, Bleeder Ply and finally the bagging itself with a pressure of -5 to -8 HG until it cures, does this all sound right?
By dilligaf76 - 6/14/2020 4:34:09 PM

Hanaldo - 6/14/2020 1:53:02 PM
Yeh pumps are only on or off, you can't control the vacuum with the pump. You need a vacuum regulator. This can be as fancy as dedicated composites vacuum regulator, or as cheap and simple as a fish tank air valve. It is essentially just introducing a leak in a controlled manner, so you leak away half of your vacuum or whatever your target is. 

Or, if you know what you're doing and you have a perfectly sealed bag, you can just pull roughly half vacuum and shut off the pump. But this is very reliant on your bag, if you have any leaks at all then all bets are off.

To confuse you even more: The absolute best method is actually quite similar to pre-preg, where you want to work out the viscosity of the resin system in relation to its cure cycle. If you can hold the vacuum level at quite a low vacuum while it is at its lowest viscosity, and then ramp up the vacuum as the resin viscosity goes up, then you can time it so that you reach a full vacuum just before the resin cures. By doing that, you minimise how much the air can expand with the vacuum but you still get full compaction. Very tricky to pull off.

I'm still not sure what for instance 50% vacuum is, I mean I know its half way but half way could be 15HG or 100HG. The fish pond air control valve soundlike a great idea if you haven't got money to burn, I like it.