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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!
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