adding decorative graphics in mold?

Here is a chapter of my catalogue, page 2 has some pictures of printed glass veil.

I just have the woodgrains in the catalogue, as all others either are not appealing, or are on customer specs. (emergency exit signs, that sort of thing)

These are installed behind a transparent gelcoat, and depending on the desired effect, a coloured gelcoat can be put behind it.

thanks for the input! i am looking at it for a pure cosmetic purposes… just a bit of showboating i guess, to give the stick the ability to be labeled as custom product such as listing the stiffness and or weight, or for saying custom made for … its a want not a need, i will experiment with some of the laser printed clear films first, nad se ehow that goes.

the shafts are oblong octoganol. the reason for the sape is because thats what been done in the past and i thinks its comfortable to use. i have tried other profiles before, but since i am making shafts (and not yet heads) this shape is the most popular and makes it easier to switch the shaft with commercially available heads.

i’ll update when i have something to report!

i had a few scraps of materials lying around, so i made a small shaft, experimenting with placing printed transparency in the mold as had been discussed here. i just opened the mold- the labels appear to be bonded in nicely. next time i will try painting with a pint pen to fill in white on the clear part of the label, so that the graphic shows up well on carbon fiber. very pleasantly surprised by how well it went, just the same.

you’ll see i a black and yellow label on the fiber glass, and a black lined clear label spanning the joint between carbon and fiberglass. in all i placed 4 labels in the part, and they all appear to have bonded flushly. there is no edge where the label ends. slight discoloration on the fiber glass around the label, but that is not apparent on the darker back drop of carbon.


Looks very much acceptable to me…

thanks herman! did a real one last night. actually painted the backside of the transparency in silver before laying it up. the outer layer is carbon and grey fiberglass.

these are the results i was hoping for - other than the text sitting at an angle. oh well.



Make the angle your trademark. Small variations are not critical.

Looks great, can’t believe you haven’t made any of these before with the kind of results you keep getting. Are you going to be giving this a clear coat at all, or is this the finish of the final product? If they are cleared you could just put a regular sticker on after you make the shaft then clear over it. All the graphics on my helicopter canopys are done this way and I have never seen a problem with them. (And they have been threw many crashes :sad: )

Also did you notice the color from the dyed fiberglass almost running out of the grey as you brush resin on it? I had the same sleeves from Sollar only in black and orange and my brush would be colored orange after making shafts. After that happened I started to think that Sollar’s “patented” process for making custom dyed fabric may be just using Rit fabric dye from your local grocery store… I tried it on normally plain weave glass and it worked for me. So if your going to be making alot of shafts you might want to find a cheap source of braided carbon/glass then buy your own colors. It also worked on Kevlar by the way…

Hello to everyone!
try to take a look on this website: http://www.basler-lacke.com/
they produce a very good plastic film in Nylon 11 to co-mould a surface with epoxy prepregs system or with fiber processed with apoxy, is not suitable for the useage with polyester and vinylester resins.
See you
Marco

I’ve seen rice paper being used with succes too :slight_smile:

Has anybody ever seen a green digital camo pattern in a veil or fabric that is infusable? I have a customer that wants it for a project.

http://www.fibreglast.com/product/Desert_Storm_Camo_Chromaveil_5007/Chromaveil
It’s not digital but just and example. They used to have digi but stoped because I dont think anyone ordered it. They will do custom veil but it’s $100+ a yard.

HP Textiles which sells the MTI hose also has a similar product but no digi, maybe they do customer order and could be cheaper. Never hurts to ask them.
http://www.hp-textiles.com/shop/index.php?language=en&cat=c17_bedrucktes-Glasvlies-bedrucktes-Glasvlies.html&cPath=99_17&

I actually ordered most of the styles from Fiberglast. It’s pretty cool stuff. Will call HP Textiles tomorrow. Thanks!!