We all know the desired ratios of CF to resin and we know the achievable ratios differ between hand layup/vacuum bagging, and Resin Infusion... but what is the ideal and actually achievable ratio for Soric/Resin when done as part of a Resin Infusion that has CF skins? Are there any good published data for Soric/Resin design ratios?


A Lifelong Learner

It would be hard to work out an exact figure in that sense.  You can calculate the rough panel weight by adding the weight of the soric and the resin uptake to get a core weight.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Of course there is. The resin uptake for soric is very well documented. Here the numbers out of my main supplier's catalogue, wich are within +-10% to my experiments:
Resin uptake in kg/m^2:
Sf2mm: 1
sf3mm: 1,3
lrc1,5mm: 0,6
lrc2mm: 0,8
lrc3mm: 1
from here the actual volumetric resin contend is just one simple calculation away. But I don't know why you want to know that, except to calculate the resin uptake.

oekmont, Thank you for your very useful information. I will use this data to calculate the cured weight of the items I will make as a part of my UAV monocoque. Naturally, I am trying to design the lightest possible layup. Once the design is set and the materials are all purchased, I will use this to calculate the amount of resin to prepare before starting a resin infusion.

When I asked the question, I was thinking that perhaps the resin uptake for soric is described in the same way that carbon fiber is described as a percentage. After reading your information, I realize that the manufacturers report this as resin uptake which for my needs is just as useful to plug into my calculations for the net total weight. And I did find similar values on the manufacturers websites for the materials I am considering.
Your help is very much appreciated.


A Lifelong Learner

Oakemont, we actually got a quite a variety of resin uptake figures for soric in our own testing and calculating from customers figures - with the manufacturers quoted figure being fairly conservative in our experience. Especially as a lot of people making cosmetic parts will leave the resin feed open for longer than usual to help avoid pinholes.  Of course making it resin rich in this way effects the fibre/resin ratio as well as the resin uptake.  An accurate and fair comparison would only work exactly on a like for like basis. I imagine Lantor's test figures will be for a standard infusion done a set way hence being towards the lower end of the resin uptake we have seen.


Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

My experiments only differed by 5% and were within 10% of the data from my supplier. Lrc1.5 took a little less resin, lrc3 a little more and sf3 a little less in my setup. 5 repetitions per material.