I have been going through all our infusions for the past 3 months. We have infused about 275 molds in 3 months and about 35 got bag leaks be it holes in the bag or a seal leak. About 15 screwed up by fabric not pushed down all the way or other stupid reasons. My question is how many are you screwing up? Is this a good and normal ratio of success versus failure? I am just getting very frustrated, for some reason I screwed up 3 civic frames in a row with 2 seal leaks and one with a hole in the bag. I could not find any of these leaks after the fact. Of course you lose money on every screw-up and now we are working on hoods and such so a screw up will cost us more money. I heard that a 90% success rate is average but I want first hand experiance to chime in!
Well, with the production that you are doing, maybe look into custom made, clear silicone reuseable vacuum bagging and a push to seal edgings?
very good idea! who would you suggest?
:D:D…BONDLINE! 
or Airtech also has a kit to do them too as I saw it at Sampe a year or two ago…
I have an airtech kit here from when I bought the business. I guess I have some R&D to do today 
I think the true beauty of the Infusion process is that the product can be dry-laid up prior to the resin ever entering the process…
So why not pull a vaccuum, and either by ear or by aid of an ultrasonic leak detector (can’t remember where I’ve seen those before)…find your leaks, deal with 'em, then when everything is hunky-dory, open up your resin line!
That is the way it is done already. If you don’t have an Ultrasonic tester, bag it with a gauge in there, pull the vacuum and then shut off the vacuum and lokk for a drop on the gauge.
And you left extra areas along the sides, you could pull vacuum, then spray some lightly dyed color water around and see the vacuum leak is fairly easy…
Another great idea…
And what I was hinting at in my previous post is that more can probably be done in the pre-infusion stage of the process to help prevent the 13% failure rate that he’s experiencing. Granted, his track record is nothing to sniff at, but if a further improvement is to be had, it’ll only be done prior to infustion.
I always keep a tube of decorators caulk/mastic handy in case of a troublsome leaky bag where I can’t find the leak. It can be a bit messy but it does the job.I squeeze a very thin line of the caulk around the perimeter of the tape and bagand then with a small plastic rollerroll around the outside. The caulk is white so any tiny leak can be seen as a little (hopefully!) white line going across the tape. It seals it up and gives indication of where the leak is. I find that now I can guess where the leak will be, usually when doing an awkward shape its on a pleat.
The caulk sets and can be peeled off afterwards so it doesn’t ruin the bag like a silicone mastic. I have used the caulk instead of tape in some cases with good results, but its messy.
Never works!! we can sit their for an hour going through the bag and the bag will have full vacuum, then once we add resin and the part infuses about 5 minutes after full infusion is when the leaks start. when the leaks are holes in the bag, it pinches itself off so you can’t find them, once you add resin it opens it up and then starts to take in air.
Im going to give this a try!
Patience has saved me from an infusion mess on more than one occasion. I am not trying to insert voodoo into a scientific approach but in my experience, seal leaks whether due to a sharp edges or tape failure seem to reveal themselves within 30 minutes. I pull full vac on the part and leave it for about a half an hour. Inevitably if a leak doesn’t spring immediately it usually happens within that time period.
Exactly. I leakdown test for at least 20 minutes before infusion.