Using foam as base mold material

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Using foam as base mold material

Author	Message
TomBombRiot	TomBombRiot posted 10 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 11	Hi, I am new to the whole mould making process, so I need to get some info to quickly get me started. My main question is - is it possible to use a material (e.g. HDPU foam), CNC mill an inverted female (cavity) mould, coat it with resin and use this as the female mould to put prepreg carbon fiber in and cure in oven? It would make the mould making so much easier compared to having to do a model and then make a glass fiber mould from it. Very thankful for input on this /Thomas Edited 10 Years Ago by TomBombRiot
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Yep, totally fine. Composite company here in Perth is currently building the southern hemispheres largest carbon fibre catamaran, and they are doing it using CNC'd foam as a mould. Just one thing to think about, the moulds won't last long. For low production runs they are ok, but don't plane to get 50 parts out of one.
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TomBombRiot	TomBombRiot posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 11	Great, thanks!
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Matthieu Libeert	Matthieu Libeert posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 955, Visits: 3.4K	make sure your HDPE PU is resistent till the temperatures used for prepreg, as well as your coating resin Matthieu Libeert Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports website: www.mat2composites.com
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kidpaint	kidpaint posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 99, Visits: 676	We just got some plugs in today that were cnc machined from foam. Im not sure what type of foam is is though. We are using PE resin to make the molds
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*VVS*	*VVS* posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Moderators Posts: 226, Visits: 334	So what kind of finish would you get in/on the resin from this technique. would there be much work needed before you could lay your part?
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