UD Prepreg sticking to glass plate altough using 6 layers of Easylease?


UD Prepreg sticking to glass plate altough using 6 layers of Easylease?
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Pier
Pier
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I' m currently making tensile test samples for Unidirectional (UD) Prepreg. Therefore, I need to fabricate a 1mm thick unidirectional sheet. I used two glass plates that sandwich five layers of UD Prepreg and are vacuum baged and cured in the Prepreg oven at 100°C (see attached pic). The two glass plates were treated with six layers of Easylease coated with a 20min. separation between each coating. However, I still have the problem that the Prepreg sticks to the glass. I cannot manage to take the Prepreg sheet off the glass without braking the glass or the prepreg sheet (see attached pic). I tired this several times already. Any Idea how to resolve this? What about trying to use PVA or wax as a release agent, instead of Easylease?

Looking forward fot some help

Kind regards

Pier


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Matt (Staff)
Matt (Staff)
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Pier - 1/3/2018 2:50:45 PM
Pier - 1/3/2018 2:27:59 PM
oekmont - 1/3/2018 12:13:53 PM
But usually easylease should work very well. Have you cleaned the glass before applying the release agent? Maybe there is something on the glass, wich causes this issue.


I really don't understand why it is not working? I cleaned the surface and even switched from tempered glass to special heat resitant glass but it does not work good enough to be called a repetitive process. The reason could be hidden in:

- Glass Type
- Epoxy System (in my case E320/E321/E322/E323 from SGL)
- Heat Control (In my case according to Sigrapreg datasheet)
- Application method
- Application quantity
- Panel stiffness

This is what I did so far:

- Varied glass type (from tempered to heat resistant glass)
- Varied application method (Circular movments to linear movments)
- Application method (more and less release agent)
- I tried with a Mylar foil between the glass and the carbon and it worked
- Changed stiffness of the panel

What I noticed was, that it worked with stiffer panels like [0/90/+45/-45/+45/-45/90/0] or unidirectional 0° with a 2mm thickness. Therefore my question:

- Could it be that the stiffness of the sheet influences the release of the sheet itself?

Next I will try with the HP-HGR5 release agent...

Hi Matt, thank you for commenting on this. Here are the answers to your questions:

- I use the Sigrapreg C U200-0/NF-E322/40% Prepreg system from the SGL Group.
- My cure cycle is considering the Sigrapreg Epoxy System Specification and is as follows: 40min ramp to 100°C/120min at 100°C/40min ramp down to 20°.

My comments concerning your points:

1) Could be. This is the reason for which I tried with another glass that unfortunately failed as well. I guess I have to talk to a glass specialist here...
2) The release agent was always properly sealed but it is 2 years old. Are two years considered to as old?
3) This can be excluded because I checked it
4) I tried different procedures but no one worked to be considered a reliable repetitive process
5) This is very unlikely since I know the fiber and matrix system and have it documented in the specifications

Looking forward to hear from you...






I think the age of the Easy-Lease is the most likely (and a very likely) explanation. Easy-Lease has a shelf life of 12 months. It will continue to work after 12 months but 24 months should really be considered to be too old. A 12 month shelf-life is typical for chemical release agents (some of them are in the 6 months region) and most of them will not perform well once you start to exceed their shelf-life by too long.

I very much expect you would get different results from fresh release agent.

I did also notice that you mentioned the release was OK for a thicker laminate but not OK for a very thin laminate. This is not something that has been focused on much in this discussion but it is an interesting result worthy of some further consideration. For example, release problems are not uncommon if there is not proper resin flow on the surface of the laminate which can sometimes happens following a failed cure such as a burst bag or incorrect temperature settings. Is it possible that you thin laminate is too thin to allow proper resin flow and therefore this could cause release problems similar to those after a burst bag or incomplete cure? This seems quite possible to me; especially in conjunction with release agent which is twice past its shelf-life.


Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales
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Pier - 7 Years Ago
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