In mold clear coat and release agent problems


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mark18818
mark18818
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Hey was hoping someone might have some helpful advice. We have been working on infusing a carbon fiber part and we want a super high gloss wet look. We are using Zyvek product GP mold sealer and release and an inmold high gloss clear coat with UV protection for Duratex. Anyway we were advised from our supplier Nexeo to use the #6 release but we had all kinds of fisheye problems with the clearcoat so they recommended wiping down the mold with mold cleaner to reduce the surface tention but no luck. So we now have tried the #3 release and still are getting fisheyes in our clear coat. Yesterday we pulled a part without the clearcoat but are finish just wasn't glossy enough plus we had alot of what basicly looked like fisheyes in our resin. We are using a vinyl ester resin which we buy from US Composite out of Florida. We have done some hand lay-up with this same resin and carbon fiber and the finish has been real glossy for us. We found that the Zyvek #6 when used in our hand lay-up mold even fisheyed with our resin but the #3 when wiped with aceton came out supper glossy but pulled a bit hard. Anyway we are stumpped and not getting a lot of advice from our rep from Nexeo as of yet. Anybody have some helpful tips or advice as we are about to pull our hair out. We have been fighting with this for a very long time and just not winning.

Thanks

Mark
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CNC Pro
CNC Pro
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As a new member to this site I’d like to say Hello to everyone, as this is my first post.

As the owner of a CNC job shop, one of my customers is a composite company, which caters primarily to the racing industry.  I was reading the posts on this topic and remembered a similar dilemma with molds I was producing for them, mainly delimitation of the mold surface while de-molding and the resulting surface finish.

I recall reading an article several years back reporting on a new process John Deere in collaboration with a composite company in which they were developing the large engine cowls for John Deere farm tractors. The components were a one-piece fiberglass cowl that was produced using chopper guns and a secondary clear coat finish after de-molding. This proved very time consuming and they were having quality issues as well.

The solution came by using a clear thermal forming plastic (similar to “clam-shell” plastics used in packaging such as PETG) that was vacuum formed into the female molds, then the chopper guns applied the fiberglass/resin complete with color mixed into the resin. Reportedly, the production time was cut significantly, as the parts didn’t require complete cure before removal from the molds, and the plastic created the clear coating they required.
I was wondering if this process has been tried by anyone else in this forum in resin infusion?
I hope that I didn’t “hi-jack” the topic, and I look forward to your responses!
Edited 12 Years Ago by CNC Pro
Matthieu Libeert
Matthieu Libeert
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Welcome Mark,

I've been thinking of some similar thing...
my biggest concern is that epoxy or polyester would attack the sheet of plastic, themperatures can get high when polyester
for example kicks of... PET has a temperature resistence till around 140°C so this might cause some problems I think, I'm not
pretty sure as well if a good bond is possible between some plastics and resins. I'll put it on my 'to test' list Smile

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website:
www.mat2composites.com




fgayford
fgayford
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Hello

Isn't this the technic used in the Bricklin cars. It was just aweful. Two dissimilar materials that had different expansion rates. The bodys were all wavey and got worse over time.I believe hot tubs use the same process. But John Deer must have done testing. (I hope)

Fred
GO

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