ProFinish Carbon Cloth - How is it made?

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Hi everyone,

Has anybody seen the ProFinish carbon fiber cloth?

http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/products/carbon-fibre-cloth-fabric/ProFinish-coated-22-twill-195gsm-1m.aspx

I was wondering if anybody knows how its made, and if its possible to do this yourself out of standard carbon fiber cloth (non profinish)?

With the VAT and postage it comes to about £32/sqm, i can get normal cloth for about £17/sqm so you can see thats a massive difference and seriously eats away at my budget.

Thanks

#2

From my reading here I remember someone using a light fiberglass cloth on the backside to hold the fabric together using spray adhesive to hold the two fabrics together.

#3

I’ve got a small sample of it, looks like they sprayed globs of clear epoxy onto the backside to hold it together. Its rather stiff to work with as a result of the binding resin.

Like Canyon said, light glass will work but I’ve found that even a light mist of spray adhesive with or without the fiberglass layer will hold the weave in the original pattern nicely.

#4

Its a binder not resin and a light spray adhesive will work just as good don bother with pro finish

#5

Thanks guys, iv got a bit of plain weave fiberglass here, ill pop down to the shop tomorrow to get some spray adhesive and practice on the cheap stuff :slight_smile:

Thanks again

#6

All it has is a binder holding the fabric together.only really usefull for twill weave,which distorts a lot.

#7

Does anybody know what sort of binder is used? Iv tried looking on google for a suitable one as a pose to spray adhesive but I cant find anything, maybe im searching for the wrong thing.

#8

Here’s a thread detailing spray adhesives

http://www.compositescentral.com/showthread.php?t=6692

#9

Hi guys,

My sprey adhesive arrived in the post yesterday and i have to say thank you! It really does work! I can cut my weave in near enough dead straight lines with no fraying and no distortion.

I do have one concern however, if weave with spray adhesive on the back is used with resin infusion, will the resin infuse throughout the weave properly or will the adhesive prevent this and cause a lack of strength, or peeling of the layer of material from other layers, or something similar?

Thanks

#10

There’s been opinions on both sides about whether the use of spray adhesive will affect the quality of the final part. In general though light use won’t noticeably affect anything. If you’re dumping half the can on one layer or making aircraft grade parts though you’ll have to run your own tests to see if it’s acceptable.

#11

spray adhesive is a contaminant. It will have an effect on the properties of the laminate. However for what most people are doing on here it would not make a difference. In a structrual part it would effect the performance of the laminate.