Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Front splitter help...

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic3815.aspx

By Ball9930 - 12/12/2012 11:26:17 PM

Hi, basically I'm going to be making my own design front splitter mount out of plywood and form it out of  
Chopped strand mat with a top layer of carbon or Kevlar, or should I go for woven glass?


Also would I be better gel coating onto my mould the layering onto that or make my splitter and the gel coat? 

Would you say that would be strong enough at around 5mm think? 

If so exactly what will I need? And how much?

Measurements are 1060mm x 1790mm x 5mm
Thanks Dan
By Matt (Staff) - 12/13/2012 6:03:24 PM

Hi Dan,

OK, I'm with you.

I understand it that the plywood mould/template is going to be the 'female' mould (effectively) so that you'll get a nice finish on the plywood/GRP mould and then put your release agent on that and then lay the materials for the part itself onto that surface so that when you release the part from the mould your A side (the side you'll see) was the first layer down into the mould.

Under this understanding I would recommend using a gelcoat. If you're going to make the splitter out of glass and then have layer of carbon kevlar on top I would certainly recommend either woven glass cloth or biaxial glass cloth. Both of these materials will significantly outperform chopped strand mat for minimum extra cost. You could use a good quality clear polyester gelcoat and then polyester laminating resin, or, if you want something quite a bit stronger (but more expensive) then you could use our GC50 epoxy compatible polyester gelcoat and then our epoxy laminating resin to laminate the glass and carbon/kevlar.

Glass laminate with a carbon/kevlar reinforcement on the top would be pretty strong at 5mm. It might not be the lightest spliiter in the world but it should be plenty strong enough.

Best regards, Matt