Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Elevating temperature during resin infusion curing process

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic39348.aspx

By ahender - 10/29/2020 11:15:05 AM

The infusion resin I now plan on using has a 2-hour pot life at 77 degrees F (basically room temperature). No gel time/working time is listed. I have contacted the manufacturer to try and get this information. I imagine it is close to 8-10 hours. Why is elevating the curing temperature a bad thing? I would love to boost the temp to a minimum of 100 F after the infusion has completed.

Thanks...Alan
By ahender - 10/29/2020 11:30:19 PM

Hanaldo - 10/29/2020 11:15:17 PM
Yeh there really isn't any reason you can't elevate the cure if you're using epoxy, the only time you might want to be very careful is if you are doing a very thick laminate - not something most people have to worry about. 

I frequently elevate to 50-60° C straight after infusion. Couple things to watch out for are leaks developing (bagging tape can soften and start to leak), uneven heating (not ideal for one part of the mould to be more than a couple degrees different to another part as this will cause warping), and thermal runaways in thicker sections.

Thank you Hanaldo. I may have to change strategies on heating source. I know I have more than a few degrees variation with my current setup.