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Front bumper winglet moulds advice
Front bumper winglet moulds advice
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Front bumper winglet moulds advice
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Ash R
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Ash R
posted 7 Years Ago
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Hi. Quite new to composites, dabbled about a bit done lots of research online and bought some books, but after a couple failed moulding attempts I've decided to try a simpler project and reach out for help!
Front winglets seem to me a simple project to make.
looking at making a pair similar to what's in the picture. I could get my hands on a pair of ali ones to take a mould from. I plan on taking moulds using the Uni mould kit. Need advice on how to get both sides cosmeticly pleasing. Mould of each face and bond together with foam core? Split mould designed to be a closed mould and used to compress the CF producing one piece straight from the mould? Just need advice on this before I start making the mould as would affect the design.
Many thanks
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Steve Broad
Steve Broad
posted 7 Years Ago
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If the surfaces are flat I would do as Warren suggests. Make a sturdy mould of one side only and place a polished folded aluminium plate (treated with several layers of release agent) on the other side. Plate needs to be 4mm thick in order to prevent vacuum pressures distorting it. However, bending plate this thick may result in cracks along the outside of the bend and these will need to be sanded/filled. If you can't bend 4mm you will probably get away with using 3mm or even 2mm. on a small/thin item such as this.
Update. Rethinking this, you could possibly make both sides of the mould out of 4mm aluminium. The only issue I can think of is the possibility of vacuum distortion but, with a total of 8mm thickness of aluminium this is unlikely IMO. The mould would be quick, cheap and easy to make. I recently made these aero deflectors (still to be cut to shape) out of 4 layers of 375gm prepreg carbon laid on both sides of a 1.5mm thick aluminium mould (thereby making a pair using one mould :-) ). 120 dec C curing and no distortion.
I wouldn't bother with a core, just use more layers of carbon (6 layers of 2-300gm will be ample, probably get away with 4 with such a narrow piece.). Using a core means that you have to deal with the exposed edges (unless you can wrap the carbon around them which isn't easy). Using only carbon does away with this.
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7 Years Ago by
Steve Broad
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Front bumper winglet moulds advice
Ash R
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7 Years Ago
The simplest way would be a wet lay compression mould. In effect you are taking a mould of each side, wet laying in the fabric and clamping them both together. You want to make the moulds quite...
Warren (Staff)
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7 Years Ago
If the surfaces are flat I would do as Warren suggests. Make a sturdy mould of one side only and place a polished folded aluminium plate (treated with several layers of release agent) on the other...
Steve Broad
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7 Years Ago
Thanks for your replies guys! The original pattern is 4mm ali finished in black powder coat. From your advice I gather I could make two highly polished plates to compress the CF between, applying th...
Ash R
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7 Years Ago
I would go with the last option. However, if you use plates much bigger than the part make sure you cut the carbon to cover the whole plate. If you don't the two plates will be pulled together where....
Steve Broad
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7 Years Ago
Think I will look into this method then. Thanks for pointing out the issues oversized plates could have, wouldn't of thought of that. Do you think stainless steel plates work just as well as...
Ash R
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7 Years Ago
Stainless sounds like a great idea as it will be nice and shiny already :-) One thing to take into account if you decide to go the prepreg route is the time taken to heat up the steel. If not enough...
Steve Broad
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7 Years Ago
Il see what I can get my hands on then! :) Doubt Il be playing with pre pregs for a while yet but something to bare in mind. Am I right in thinking that the inner plate will have to be slightly...
Ash R
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7 Years Ago
That will make the mould neater but the overhang wouldn't cause a problem. Ideally the bend radius should be smaller for the inner sheet, so maybe use 5mm plate for outer mould and 3mm for the inner....
Steve Broad
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7 Years Ago
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