Hi Morepower, any idea if this good OOA pre-preg you’re using will be sold to the masses? it will be great if if we could lay our hands on it and give it a try. please also share pictures once you have clearcoated, i’m just wondering how good its going to look, coz it looks great already.
It may be available already to some customers… I know I can order it now… It was not on the site when I last looked so it may be launched at the next composites show and the few who have it now are sort of the crash test dummies… But I have to say it works perfectly…
I have to say I do not clear coat any of my work… Two reasons are that customers may want to paint the parts fully or have some design on them. If I clear coat it then it is a wasted process as they will be sanding it off again also it makes the parts slightly cheaper and as I am not established and well known I have to compete on price but for me not at the expense of losing profit too… it they want a clear coat then they can have it as an option. But I like to be able to show parts as they come out of the mould and not hide imperfections behind lacquer. My work is what you see… I think it helps show my works true quality and if my customers go elsewhere and ask for a part unlacquered from anyone else then lets face it how many would send out parts without clear coat or lacquer?? Not many are that confident that they can supply parts out of the mould with only trimming…
I will PM you more details of the material…
Peelply on the flange, sorry that I did not think about that possibility. Your results are great and look perfekt.
Yes I had to put the peel ply on the flange of the dive bottle covers. I have a very sharp edge and it does help get the air off that edge. I made one which had the peel ply in a more usual place and it had a line of frothy bubbles right on the corner. Not a problem for the customer apparently but I was not happy so made a change to the breather stack.
Here is the fuel tank base and again this has a lip to trap air so I place peel ply under the first layer.
Then when the backing layers are done I put peel ply round the edges where it will have adhesive for bonding. I would prefer to just do this second peel ply but due to the sharp lip I have to peel ply both sides of the layup on this part.
You can see this now has the threaded inserts covered over and is about to be bagged.
I have to agree with morepower… The more I do the math the better it seems to use pre-preg. Just started to build my oven to work with it at home. The parts we’ve made at work come out fantastic, very similar surface quality if the mold is shiny (like the polished aluminum molds we have).
Plus it’s much easier to work with than dry layup. Cleaner, no dusty fabric from cutting. Plus with the cutting table I can cut extremely detailed and perfect plys.
I’ve also seen some OOA stuff that has UV protection in the resin. As more companies are using OOA stuff in their process for applications like auto and sports and bikes, people want to see the carbon and not have it painted.
There is a place for infused parts, but for me is is just down to cost. If I were buying 100’s of meters of carbon I know I can get a really good price but for me if I look at the cost of carbon being about £23.00 per meter and infusion resin at £20.per kilo plus another £23.00 per kilo for a clear gelcoat and the price of the extra pipe work and mesh etc it is too much. I am paying £32.00 per meter for the OOA pre-preg which is the same material as I used to make my parts… I have no wasted resin and it is a very clean process, I have been able to reuse bags and breather over and over as well as release film too. But if you are either not geared up for pre-pregs with some form of oven or have all of the other equipment like degassing chambers and all of the consumables there already it is a good process. I am set for pre-preg parts but would infuse if I felt it was cost effective for some parts like ones too big to fit in my oven.