Wet Infusion or Prepreg?


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Hanaldo
Hanaldo
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Jason B - 1/5/2020 3:40:00 PM
On eBay I’ve seen many carbon parts where the pattern on carbon, whether going left or right isn’t straight as an arrow. I’d assume this would have to be infusion?

Parts made in Chinese factories just aren't good quality in general, more likely to be the result of a hurried layup than a result of the process. 

Of course complex parts with extreme geometry will test both the skills of the laminator as well as the material conformability, however the parts the OP posted are very straight forward and I would expect a straight weave even with wet-laid parts.

Matthieu Libeert
Matthieu Libeert
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Would say this is prepreg but this could be a "self made" prepreg as well.
By this I mean they wetted out a piece of carbonfiber with resin and placed it in the mould, then bagged.
If you want to be sure, put your part for 1h at around 100°C in an oven and see what happens, If it's not prepreg it will have a big impact on the finish and will be very flexible at those temperatures.
If it's prepreg it will more or less stay the same but there is a small chance the clearcoat or topcoat will have some effect. 
That's how I would try to figure out if it's real prepreg or not, as I assume they won't be using a high temp resin if it's just bagged. 

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website:
www.mat2composites.com




MarkMK
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Most likely wet-lay, as it's difficult to keep the weave pattern looking straight when applying resin by hand. There's no reason why the pattern shouldn't be completely straight when infusing.  

As Hanaldo said, assuming that infused parts haven't been made with an in-mould coating, the only obvious way of telling the difference between those and pre-preg parts would be to look at the 'B' side for evidence of the different release film/fabrics that are commonly used

The OP's parts certainly seem to be pre-preg ones, judging by the appearance of the 'B' side




Jason B
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On eBay I’ve seen many carbon parts where the pattern on carbon, whether going left or right isn’t straight as an arrow. I’d assume this would have to be infusion?
Hanaldo
Hanaldo
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You really shouldn't be able to tell the difference between an infused part and a prepreg part just by looking at them. Sometimes theres a couple of tells, but generally speaking - exactly the same visually. Certainly shouldn't have any issues keeping the weave straight with infusion.
Jason B
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Those parts look good. With infusion the carbon is rarely straight as an arrow like your parts. That looks prepreg. Am I right?
Edited 5 Years Ago by Jason B
JasonFL
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Look up debulking during an autoclave layup. Slowly removes excess resin and air over time to ensure the plys stay uniform and the desired resin to weight ratio is hit.

Jason
Charles Woo
Charles Woo
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Thanks for your help guys. I really appreciate it.
Learned a lot. I didn’t know that prepreg could be so resin rich.
JasonFL
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Agreed with Oek. You’d see the flow media marks on the back if it was resin infusion.

You can see the release film marks on the back surface from traditional bagging with breather cloth. Looks like a very resin rich prepreg layup that either bridged on the fine edges and/or had resin pooling in the corners.

Jason
Charles Woo
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I get what you are saying. If there was gel coat, the bubbles would be under it. The gel coat is already hard so the bubbles won't be on the outer surface.
From what I can see the bubbles are mostly under the surface. Except for one larger pin hole.
GO

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