Carbon Fibre Reinforced Rifle Barrels

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Carbon Fibre Reinforced Rifle Barrels

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DIY GUY	D DIY GUY posted 5 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
D Group: Forum Members Posts: 3, Visits: 9	Hi I have a project to construct a carbon fibre reinforced rifle barrel, these are commercially available at a hefty price. My plan is to take an existing barrel turn in down in the lathe to a require dimension then build it back up with carbon to an over size to maximise the rigidity and strength while not including the weight of steel. I see my best option is to use a single tow varying the angles with each layer ie 90, 45, 45, 30, 30 degrees etc, over all laminate thickness will be between 5 - 6.5mm My questions is would you recommend a wet lay up dipping the tow through a resin bath or a pre preg layup ? Regarding pre preg (something I have never worked with before) how critical is the baking temps and times ? Do you have to use a special oven or is there other options ? I see you have out of oven pre preg materials - does this mean it can be cured with out baking ? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
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DIY GUY	D DIY GUY posted 5 Years Ago HOT Post Details
D Group: Forum Members Posts: 3, Visits: 9	+x oekmont - 2/10/2020 3:18:21 AM First of all: I think that any other fibre angle than 0 degree is pretty much wasted material on a rifle barrel. You want to stop it from bending, not from twisting. There are out of autoclave prepregs, but no out of oven prepregs. For a rifle barrel, out of autoclave prepreg will give you the advantage (over regular autoclave prepreg) that the curing temperatures are generally lower, and you want to keep heat out of the process as much as possible, because the steel will shrink while cooling down, the carbon will (almost) not, so any dysbalance in your laminate will result in a deflection of the barrel. For out of autoclave prepreg you only need an temperature controlled oven and a vacuum pump. For you application a regular oven might work, because you will have no mould side, and therefore not pinhole problems. Even less heat would be involved if you wrap the barrel in a wet layup. Another option might be to glue a cured carbon tube onto the barrel. Hi thank you for the information, its very well received. So from what you have told me I would be best to use a unilateral cloth running the length of the barrel ? Would this lay up suit a vacuum infusion better ? also do you know what is the maximum number of layers or combined material thickness for a vacuum infusion ? Thank you in advance.
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Buchado	B Buchado posted 5 Years Ago HOT Post Details
B Group: Forum Members Posts: 30, Visits: 208	+x DIY GUY - 2/10/2020 2:42:22 PM +x oekmont - 2/10/2020 3:18:21 AM First of all: I think that any other fibre angle than 0 degree is pretty much wasted material on a rifle barrel. You want to stop it from bending, not from twisting. There are out of autoclave prepregs, but no out of oven prepregs. For a rifle barrel, out of autoclave prepreg will give you the advantage (over regular autoclave prepreg) that the curing temperatures are generally lower, and you want to keep heat out of the process as much as possible, because the steel will shrink while cooling down, the carbon will (almost) not, so any dysbalance in your laminate will result in a deflection of the barrel. For out of autoclave prepreg you only need an temperature controlled oven and a vacuum pump. For you application a regular oven might work, because you will have no mould side, and therefore not pinhole problems. Even less heat would be involved if you wrap the barrel in a wet layup. Another option might be to glue a cured carbon tube onto the barrel. Hi thank you for the information, its very well received. So from what you have told me I would be best to use a unilateral cloth running the length of the barrel ? Would this lay up suit a vacuum infusion better ? also do you know what is the maximum number of layers or combined material thickness for a vacuum infusion ? Thank you in advance. Hi Diy guy. With infusion and prepreg you can achieve a greater fiber do resin ratio than wet lay up. If you have all the tooling for infusion, go for it. There is hardly a limit on the maximum number of layers for infusion, it's hard to say because it's a very piece/layup depending process, it depends on the shape, where you out your inlet and outlet lines, the resin viscosity, the flow media you'll use among other things, each case is a case, can't say for sure how much resin or if the laminate will be properly impregnated until you try. If it will be a one off piece, I would go for prepreg.
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