Can anybody show me how ''T ‘’ fittings should be installed on a typical infusion setup?
http://www.mcmaster.com/#barbed-tube-fittings/=1uss0f
fittings are on the bottom of the picture. Just used to branch off lines. I had 3 injection, and 2 vent lines.
if you want, i’ll diagram the pic later…
Hope you don’t mind if I ask some questions? But why do you need to split your resin supply into 3 on this part? Although I don’t what the part is, is it very thick?
Looks like 3 different panels testing different materials. 1 line feeding each one.
Yes probably, but then why not go for a much simpler set up and drag the resin from one end to the other?
because the resin cannot travel very far, you gotta make the route short or you might end up with resin gelling before it has finished wetting out the laminate. also, resin and air will not flow between the different parts.
Sorry I still don’t understand - people can infuse entire boat hulls in one go??
If the materials are overlapped slightly then the resin will flow from to one another, no? Or maybe it will get from one to another (if seperated) via your flow mesh etc…
I think we need Mr Riff to help out here, only he has the correct answer…
Heck I’ve just seen my new subtitle, how wrong could it be!! :eek:
Still, my new equipment and materials for infusion arrive today so soon I’ll be able to make some great disasters much stronger and in less time. :rolleyes:
I had a photo long ago, deleted it by mistake or misplaced it somewhere it digital lala land.
I get my 1/2" T’s from Lowes Home Impromvement store… .40cents each and they work perfect with 3/8" O.D. polyethelene hose line. Just push the hose inside one end of the T.
You can’t really make a T connection wrong ( i don’t think) just make sure there are no leaks is all.
First off, it’s a webcored 1.5" thick panel, (about 20 x 40" , 0/90 Uni CF on top and bottom. The “blocks” of webbed foam are running length wise.
The inlets are the 3 you see. I inject in the middle one, wait till it hits the end of the distro, the bottom flowfront will catch up, and by the time it hits the next inlets on the 2 sides, I open that one. The distro gaps about 2 inches because the peelply acts as a slow distro, and lets everything catch up. And then let it continue to flow until it hits my vents. The flows were almost even, maybe 2min off, but I never measured where I put the inlets, it was all by eye.
Ohyeah, when the side resin lines were open, the middle was clamped.
I had debates on how to do this part, with the webcore. While it should infuse normally, we were worried the bottom will not get enough resin, and the ends will be dry, so to be safe, we did a multi-port method. Could have also done it sideways, but depending on how the flowfronts wrap around each core block, it might have dry areas in the middle of all the webs!!!
I think that answered the questions?
Apart from not knowing what ‘distro’ and ‘Webcore’ is it’s just fine thanks!
Webcore is some kind of core mat…?
Which core are you using? We use the G6 a lot for aero pieces with large flat areas.
Are you using flow media over all the cored area? We often just feed to the edge of the core with flow media, and let the core itself distribute the resin. Having flow media on top of infusion core can be misleading since the tool side of the part may not be wetting out as fast as it looks through the bag. This method forces the flow front to travel the thickness of the part, instead of just over the top.
On a side note, what resin is being used and how’s the surface quality? Any issues with print through showing the pattern of the core?
sorry, distro is short for distribution media (flow media, etc)
Webcore is foam blocks wrapped in a fiberglass sock, and struck together as a large panel with glass scrims on the top and bottom to keep it together.
When looking at the edge, think of it as that corrugated plastic boards they use for ads/political lawn signs…but filled with foam 
and fiberglass.
but you get what I mean.
I can’t tell you what it is, since it was off a scrap trash pallet. The reason why I did the multi inlet with time delay flow media method was exactly that, to let the tool surface flow front catch up. Like I said, there were several ideas thrown around, but no one used this core before, so they didn’t know how it infused. I dind’t want to waste the little I had to test…so, we did it this way. It did work. Maybe overkill, but eh.
as for print through, I saw nothing. Used Derakane 510-A VER I think (or 8084). 0deg uni on the core, and 90 as the top layer. I clear coated the top with more VER. It more or less worked out nicely. I have to recoat and resand, and just finish the edges, etc. But I didn’t see any core pieces.
Yeah I get it, thanks for the explanation.