Need recommendations for resins, infusion and tooling

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#1

Hi folks,

it’s been a long while that I have been gone and I’m quite out of the loop as far as materials on the market, not sure if I was ever really up on it… I relied on much of the experience and advice of those on here and in the field.

I’m looking to make mostly motorcycle components for my machine (hobby/obsession:D), fairings, fuel tank, things of this nature.

I am looking for epoxy materials.

I need epoxy based tooling surface coat/gel-like coat and tooling epoxy to build up the molds. I tend not to used CSM. I do not post cure the molds due to equip limitations/resources. So higher Tg for the tooling materials without post cure would be a +.

I also need infusion resin that has Tg~200F

Your suggestions are greatly appreciated!

#2

The highest Tg that you are going to get with epoxy without a heat treatment is around 135*F. If you are not going use a heat treatment then you don’t need a tooling resin that exceeds this.

There is really no resin that will get to 200F without some heat treatment. The closest would be vinyl ester. These still require some heat to get to 200F…at least in my experience. You can get to 180*F though with a room temp cure and vinyl ester. It’ll take a good week or two to get there at room temp.

#3

I don’t have an oven for heat treatment, would placing IR lamps over the mold while under vacuum and in the mold be any benefit?

What other ways can I heat treat a part other then an oven?

Thanks.

#4

I have found a couple different resins, please feel free to give you opinions.

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-1040UK-MK2a.pdf They have a couple diff systems that can be cured at RT and then post cured at relatively low temps to get close to 200F

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-1080-2.pdf This one has very high Tg even without post curing, and has a decent viscosity for infusion.

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-1800_07-09.pdf again high Tg without a very rigorous post cure.

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-2060-GC-ALU_V2.pdf this one could be good for a tooling epoxy gel coat, but the post cure cycle might be problematic for me.

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-7080-GC-7081.pdf this tooling gel coat appears to have a pc cycle that might be possible with heating lamps

http://www.resoltech.com/IMG/pdf/DS-7080-GC-7086-GC.pdf another possibly good alternative for a tooling gel coat

#5

Ideally you should post cure your parts at a temperature equal to or above the temp you expect them to see in the field. Using heat lamps may work but you may end up with hot and cool spots depending on how many lamps you use and how they are spaced. You could easily make a cheap oven using plywood and a space heater. Also a cheap/used kitchen oven, depending on the size of your parts, may be a cheap and easy solution.

#6

if you read the datasheets more closely, you will find out that also the resoltech resins need a decent cure to reach high tg.

they just found out a smart way to describe the tg, they did not find out a smart resin…