Well I’m having a engineering conundrum about carbon fiber infusion.
So my question is if I have a metal tube could I infuse carbon fiber over it?
Second would this be enough to bond the 2 materials together (I want this) or would I have to epoxy them instead?
See my attached picture for a clearer view of what I’m talking about. Also the picture is a cut view to see the interior better.
What metal? Carbon fiber and some metals can cause galvanic corrosion unless properly insulated.
It’d be aluminum which would corrode but I can properly protect the metal with either anodizing or chem filming it.
But could the 2 be bonded together through the infusion process?
I would be worried about the bond staying after the metal is coated…
Insulate the tube with a layer of e-glass then your carbon laminate over it.
Some people bond e-glass laminates to aluminium by grinding the aluminium through wet epoxy resin prior to adding the reinforcement in a wet layup so it doesnt have a chance to oxidize before you can get the resin onto it as it oxidozes quite quickly. My personal opinion is this is somewhat paranoid and i would simply mix my resin and set it aside, then grind the spot to be bonded, then apply the resin.
With infusion, you would need more time to setup the job after grinding so i dont know how badly the oxidation would affect it - my humble guess would be that it should be ok provided you dont muck around for too long…??? Failing that, you could apply the e-glass by wet layup first, then infuse the carbon laminate afterwards. Adhesion should be quite good if using epoxy.
Whats the application / job?
My concern is temperature. If the part sees large temperature differences, then stress can become high, separating the 2.
As is mine.
Temperature could range from freezing to 110+ so a delta of say 90 degrees, which is a lot.
Also the aluminium I would be using would be the thinnest I could get for my tube diameter something in ~0.060" range. I figure this could make a difference in the dissimilar material bonding. As the expanision of the AL vs the Carbon would be very negligible but potentially enough to break bonding.