“Dry carbon” parts are made with prepreg. Just because it’s put into the mold without resin doesn’t make it a dry carbon part. It doesn’t refer to the molding process, but to the material used. It refers to the use of a material that doesn’t have any resin added during any part of the molding process.
However, the term is not really used at the professional composites level. It’s used mainly by the low end automotive aftermarket to determine if a part is made with prepreg and cured in an autoclave, which shows that the manufacturer must know what they’re doing. Anybody can go and wet layup a hood and sell it on Ebay.
Infusion, RTM, etc. are just closed molding techniques. And wet layup up is simply open molding. But these processes can yield perfectly good parts too.
The name “drycarbonparts” alone is enough to mislead customers into thinking that’s what they’re getting. The general public is usually not very well informed, and they simply heard somewhere that dry carbon parts are made “with carbon fiber that comes with resin already and is cured in a pressurized oven.”
Not arguing, just a healthy discussion to prevent any unhappy or misled buyers of composite products.
Examples of “dry carbon” parts some of my students made, and where they were cured.