Anyone have experience with TenCate OOA's ?


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20_rc51_00
20_rc51_00
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http://www.ambercomposites.com/prepreg/out-of-autoclave-prepreg/

anyone have any experience with this?

I live in Canada and I'm having a hard time tracking down any OOA materials. Anyone have suggestions for anything in Canada or the USA? Alternatively I might have to bit the bullet and buy from somewhere in Europe....

Any other sources would be appreciated. 

Until now I've been doing infusions but I'm really tired of the whole infusion process and need a change. Its a PITA with the whole layup and then the trimming afterward. Prepreg might just let me cut back on the amount of post production trimming....
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ChrisR
ChrisR
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List of some prepreg companies supplying USA
http://www.compositesworld.com/suppliers/product/294

Gurit USA may be of help, it depends how much you need as most prepreg suppliers have a MOQ of 10 or 20m/yrds but also the problem with sourcing from the UK if you go that way is the uncontrolled temperature during transport and duration, if you have a prepreg with an outlife of 7 days and it takes 5/6 days to get there then there is little usable life in it.

Amber composites are pretty good, played with a few but usually subject to minimum order quantities, sometimes you can get 2nds quality but "ya pays ya money and takes ya chance" sometimes its just a few inclusions or weave distorsion every so often but other times the whole thing is pretty much junk.

When you use prepreg then consolidation/debaulking can make the process more labourious than infusion.

You don't always have to use an OOA prepreg, a lot of the time the lower temperature ones such as ambers 8020 and E644/650 are very usable vacuum only.

You will also find voids and bridging more common especially on more complex moulds as there isn't the spare resin to fill them, if you don't force each layer into every nook and cranny then you will have more problems.
20_rc51_00
20_rc51_00
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Thanks Chris, appreciate the link and tips.

I need a change from infusion, the thought of it is daunting to me. And I dread the trimming of mass excess material (because laying fabric perfectly matched in size is just asking for trouble imo). I also get anxiety attacks  Blink about the reinforcement stack shifting during handling or loose fibers on the cosmetic side etc etc... I'm pretty obsessive about bridging, I wouldn't foresee that as a stumbling block for me. 

regarding the debulking, this is to reduce entrapped air (as much as can be before resin flow/viscosity reduction with heat anyways) and reinforcement consolidation right? How long typically for debulking? when do you know that it's "enough"/ what is the observed end goal?

ChrisR
ChrisR
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20_rc51_00 (24/01/2014)
Thanks Chris, appreciate the link and tips.

I need a change from infusion, the thought of it is daunting to me. And I dread the trimming of mass excess material (because laying fabric perfectly matched in size is just asking for trouble imo). I also get anxiety attacks  Blink about the reinforcement stack shifting during handling or loose fibers on the cosmetic side etc etc... I'm pretty obsessive about bridging, I wouldn't foresee that as a stumbling block for me. 

regarding the debulking, this is to reduce entrapped air (as much as can be before resin flow/viscosity reduction with heat anyways) and reinforcement consolidation right? How long typically for debulking? when do you know that it's "enough"/ what is the observed end goal?


If you are paranoid now, wait till you use prepreg! I really like the stuff and enjoy working with it. If you are careful then you can offset some of the additional cost of the stuff as you don't have so much waste if you nest the pattern cut outs propperly.

Depending on the matrix, some require debaulking under vacuum only for x hours/mins (usually on datasheet) and others require an elevated cure during the debaulk, again see the materials datasheet. The idea is that you consolidate the ply's in stages to minimise voids, bridging and thickness change during final cure plus you can control the resin ratio a bit more closely by bleeding some out if required
GO

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