The bike looks awesome!

I am back with a new mould for the subframe of Aprilia MXV, easier to work with especially during sealing the vacuum bag and with  provision for extra material in the mounting points. Also it is made with epoxy gelcoat backed up with vinyl ester resin. I am really satisfied with the first piece that came from this mould. I followed the advise that I read here for giving epoxy the chance to flow with more ease downwards than just crossing the mould, by making a barrier before the suction hose in order to stop the flow going to the catch pot, wetting the fiber layer stack completely. I am really thankful for this advice. So this resulted with a carbon thickness in the mounting points of more than 15 mm and with no surface voids, making it safe to trim and level the joints with no risk of coming to thin and weak. Final weight is 1050 gr, which is -370 gr less  than the aluminium version. 
Making the split mould :


Laying down the stack, in the mounting points I lost counting, over 20 layers for sure :

The result :





So this is the Mk.3 version of subframe, which is similar to Mk.2 (produced with the previous version of mould), but it is easier to produce and giving almost no risk on scrapping the final piece. Really happy with the result.

Very nice job! My one comment would be 15mm is insanely thick, I feel that could be refined further. For perspective, I was involved in a mining project here building carbon fibre haul pack trays for trucks hauling stone out of the pit. Those trays were 20mm thick, and they were carrying 400 tonne...

+x

 

Hanaldo - 10/18/2019 6:48:26 AM

Very nice job! My one comment would be 15mm is insanely thick, I feel that could be refined further. For perspective, I was involved in a mining project here building carbon fibre haul pack trays for trucks hauling stone out of the pit. Those trays were 20mm thick, and they were carrying 400 tonne...

Thank you Hanaldo!... he he he, yes indeed, it is insane thick, especially comparing to aluminium that is much smaller (which it did cracked and welded many times before after some hard suspension bottoming in over jumping landings). With 10 mm thickness is already proved to be more than ok in my old version of subframe, since after a very bad crash (that resulted also in a broken femur) the subframe cracked near the exhaust mounting point (the silencer take a big hit resulting in totally destroying, cracking and bending the titanium headers) but the mounting points of frame were totally safe. Now with my new mould I am totally safe that I can trim the inside of mounting points in order to fit into the frame without risking coming to small on thickness (I have already scrap one subframe for this reason with the previous mould and it hurt me a lot!). After all the thickness is only positioned in a very small area indicated in red square n the following picture, that really does not affect the overall weight of piece.
  
     

Are you looking for a carbon fiber manufacture that can supply high quantity products with reasonable price?
FRTCARBON has focused on top quality carbon fiber products from 2003 in China.
We are specialized in carbon fiber sheets&tubes manufacturing for more than 13 years,
with 3K clothes, matte&glossy painted and alien carbon parts customized.
Pls feel free to contact us any time !
Email:frt1@frtcarbon.com
Web:www.frtcarbon.com