Hi all, does anyone have any experience in incorporating powdered metals/compounds into the resin/gelcoat of a layup?
Will the resin have any properties of the metal powder that has been mixed in with it, would there be any benefits at all in doing this?
I was thinking of using some carbon, graphite, or aluminum powder. Would the carbon or graphite powders enhance the structural strength of the matrix at all, also will the thermal properties of the aluminum be present in the resin mixed with aluminum powder.
I plan on doing some experiments with using basic polyester resin and gelcoat to see if any benefits come out of it. Would like to know if any one has experience or has tried this before with any real gains
Yeh definitely. I use aluminium powder in all my resins if I’m building a tool for pre-preg use. It helps the moulds heat up much more evenly, greatly improving surface finish. I love it.
Have also used graphite powder before, which does toughen the resin a bit. I doubt you’d notice much difference in a fibre reinforced laminate, but in casting resins it makes a noticeable difference on shrinkage and strength.
Thanks Hanaldo, I was thinking of using some sort of mixture of metal powders in a gelcoat mixed with black pigment to give it some thermal and strength properties, also it should in theory give a black metallic finish, when cut back and clear coated.
This way the parts wont have to be painted, same reasoning behind buffing carbon fibre but not as flashy. Although it may just end up looking like very flaky metallic paint. Would like to avoid having to paint match parts and have them color coded etc. to vehicles/bikes original paint. Like a raw gelcoat finish.
Interesting topic as I have just been considering the addition of such powders for acoustic reasons. Hanaldo, very intersting about surface finish, so do you add the alu powder to epoxy during infusion of such a tool? What temperatures are you going to with your pre-preg tools? Any problems with CTE?
Yeh it would work. You need to use a good amount of pigment to get a solid black, but graphite powder helps here too. It does come out a bit metallic. Aluminium powder would help with the metallic appearance, especially if you are sanding the surface.
Whether you are entirely happy with the look is another matter, I’m not sure I would use it for aesthetic purposes. It doesn’t look like paint, it looks a bit cheaper. Best to try it for yourself and see what you think.
No, the ratio of aluminium powder required to get any decent results would make any resin system far too viscous for infusion. My tools are normally just your regular wet-laid vinyl ester gelcoat/skin coat and then a polyester rapid tooling resin. I add 25% by weight ali powder to the skin coat and 50% to the tooling resin.
Once cured, you can feel a dramatic difference to a tool made without the metal powder, it is much colder to the touch. If you monitor the temperature of the tool as you heat it up, it heats up much closer to the oven temp, and so ramp and dwell times can be reduced. It also heats up evenly through the laminate, so it isn’t just the outer skin of the mould that is at 60 degrees or whatever, but the entire mould will be. Which is where the surface finish improvements come from.
I must check it out, hoping to make one soon. For some reason read your post as though you were infusing it, but reading back theres nothing to suggest that! my apologies!! Cool though
