So I am doing my first real pre-preg tool.  The mould I had made for me has had issues........ loads of stress cracks appeared after only a couple of pulls.. Not looking for answers or reasons why that mould has had issues. I got so pissed off that I looked into a dozen different things and all I got was dizzy with each person giving me a different reason.  So I took one I had made and lacquered it to get a good finish and to remove some of the raised areas where the original stickers got left on the tank when it was moulded.  I put it back into the mould and have started to remake the mould using pre-preg carbon tooling. So far it seems to be working.. I have done the top section already and although I have not removed the section from the part the flange areas look perfect and if the rest of the mould comes out the same way I will be happy. Having had numerous quotes to remake the mould for me including a quote from the person who made it in the first place (he seems to feel it is other reasons and not his work that has caused the problem). I have bit the bullet with some Tooling from SHD. 

I will post updates as I go and hopefully in a few days will have a finished working full carbon pre-preg mould. 

SHD,s owners all come from ACG (now cytec)all the many data sheets they produced over the last 20/25 years had various versions of putting glass toes in at various points to help it de gas, No one ever did it thou as it never made any difference !

Be interesting to see if this does do anything ?

Do you have any dealings with Paul Russell at SHD ?

Only rep I know at a composite firm who has actually been there at the coal face and done the job and knows what they are talking about

All the others are just good salesmen who will show you a fantastic flat sample taken off flat glass sheet

Or very good "theoretical" chemists who will tell you how it "should" work

I dont know Paul sadly.. I may have spoken to him. But I know Carl quite well as well as Glen and obviously Steve and Helen. I went to see them about materials when they had just started up in a small unit and it was just the two of them.  So I have both been lucky to see them grow and lucky to try out some of the material they have been developing well before it is given to others. The latest clear OOA carbon I got to try from the development roll once they had got some good results from it.  If you saw the original DF212 spec sheet the cure schedule was their own schedule but the later one they have now has my cure schedule. It sort of worked but the pinholes were still there on complex shapes but once I did a few parts with a couple of changes to the way it ramped and would dwell it works every time so as I got to try their materials first for free I gave them my schedule. 


I go over there every few weeks to collect material and they are all genuinely nice there.  The tooling I am trying at the moment is one that is an evolution of the material I was given to try about a year ago. Not sure if it has a spec sheet yet as the instruction I was given by Carl is different to the spec sheets I have seen for the tooling systems I have seen on their site..