Hi, I’m looking for some advice on reinforcing tapes (glassfibre, carbon fibre etc) and the best resin or equivalent to use with them asI’m not sure what would be best for the application I have in mind and I don’tbelieve any of the tapes etc are self adhering. 

The lower part of my laptophinge (the metal plate part that is inside the lower chassis underneath theback of the keyboard) needs to be reattached to the inside of the plastic base,but the metal threaded bushings that the hinge plate is usually screwed intohave broken off (they are unfortunately housed inside plastic extrusions on thebase which are not strong enough for the job). I am hoping to get some smallbolts and drill through the plastic casing lining up with the holes in thehinges and bolt the hinge back down, however, I want to sandwich/ reinforce thecasing on both the inside and outside of the shell (and possibly over the hopof the hinge plate itself for added security) with *some material* to repairthe situation, as the laptop in every other way is fine. I have heard thatoften manufacturers use a kind of plastic for these cases that is difficult touse adhesive with, so I figured some of your reinforcing tape with anappropriate resin may do the job, as well as being drillable once set. However,as well as providing a strong bond, ideally I would like to use a resin thatdoesn’t get too hot (as it’ll be near to internal laptop-bits when it’s curing)and also as non-stinky as possible. I have also noticed your carbon fibre rapidrepair kit, I don’t know if that would be more suitable? I hope you can helpme, thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you!

All the best,

Kat     

Due to the close proximity of electrical components in the tight space of a modern laptop, i would definitely be looking more towards the glassfibre route as it is non-conductive. Carbon fibre is a high resistance conductor.

You can certainly reinforce the casing with tape and epoxy resin to build up strength in layers to hold the plate in place.  However, you will struggle to drill and tap any threads into the reinforcement as composite materials do not hold threads. Usually you would use a threaded insert of some kind. Finding one on the small size you are likely to need might be a struggle. If you still have the original threaded bosses, you could hold them in place with the resin and glassfibre and thus re-use the original threads.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant