vacuum resin infusion - flow media

[mcollins07]

I am looking for a US source of flow media to be used in vacuum resin infusion. This media is external to the laminate, outside the peel ply or perforated film and not to be integrated into the core. I would like the material to be compatible with both epoxy and polyester resins. The material used in the past was an orange colored plastic mesh. I am not certain but I believe the material was a soft nylon with the short dimension of the diamond mesh about 0.5 cm and the long dimension about 1.0 cm. The guy in Houston who found the material said it was used in industrial water filters … probably made by 3M, Dow or some large chemical company. I’d like to find a reliable low cost source or supplier of flow media material for multiple and various size projects.

Also, interested in hearing about the flow rates others have observed with various dimensions and shapes of mesh flow media.

[13AL]

Check out the thread on vacuum pump size. A few guys were using shade cloth from Home Depot or Lowe's with some good results.

[jim lee]

try..

Composites one [ Phone:1 (800) 283-0809 ] Ask for PN 536598 41" roll cost of.. lesse'.. $210 bucks a roll. Don't remember how much is in the roll.

Its a plastic mesh, looks like cyclone fence for legos.

You put it over the peelply. If you forget the peel ply, it becomes part of your part.

-jim lee

[ahender]

Delstar Technologies -- Naltex (100 yards about $2.11 per yard direct from company)

Colbond, Inc. -- Enkafusion (84 yards at $4.76 per yard at Fibreglast)

Airtech International -- Resinflow 75 (100 yards about $2.50 per yard at Fiberglass Supply)

I have not tried any of the above products.

I just bought some $.99 per yard mesh fabric at Hancock Fabrics I will be testing later on.

alan

[mcollins07]

13AL,
I’ve read about the 30% Shade cloth material from Lowe’s being used. And went to Lowe’s in Lindale Texas and found a Sun Screen Fabric from a company called Easy Gardener of Waco Texas. The material would probably work somewhat, but it is not what I am looking for. Although I have not tested this material, it does NOT appear to have the flow through of the diamond shaped plastic mesh material. Their website says the material is a polypropylene and will withstand 160 degrees C. I found no reference to the coverage, such as 30%.

[mcollins07]

Jim & Alan,
Thanks for the contact information. I've called Composite One and they are sending some info. I'll follow up on these other suppliers also and let you know what I find.


Michael

[AndrewK]

For me 30% shade cloth worked out most economical, 1/3 the cost of infusion mesh but the cost differential for you in the states may not be as great.
Delstar has at least 6 different grades, if you contact them they will mail out small samples to you. The faster the media the more resin it will waste.
Main difference between shade cloth and diamond patterned mesh is that shade cloth mostly feed along the knitted lines and not sideways where as mesh will feed in all directions, for me this has not been an issue.
I suggest you trial both and decide, there are advantages and disadvantages with both.
Shade cloth should conform better to very compound shapes and comes in 1.8 & 3.2m wide rolls.
Have a read through the various infusion and vacuum pump threads, I think I posted some flow rates and resin consumption numbers.

Andrew

[JRL]

Mcollins07: Sounds like you used Airtech's Resinflow 60. Its orange and patterned like you described.

There is also Airtech's Resinflow 75 that is green and moves a little faster (twice as fast supposedly) than the Resinflow 60.

The fastest Ive heard of is Enka Fushion. Its also the most expensive, and not worth it IMO.

[jim lee]

I don't like the Enkafuse stuff. We find that it holds a large blob of resin to the part causing way too much heat and print through. Looking at the gelcoat we can see exactly where the Enkafuse was run on the back of the part.

We have a whole roll of it here. Anyone in the PNW want some?

-jim lee

[KnottyBuoyz]

I'd like to try some Jim.

I'll pay the shipping to Ogdensburg NY 13669

[ahender]

Jim:

What resin flow media do you like best?

alan

[jim lee]

We use the green stuff that looks like Lego cyclone fence with the feed lines. We actually sew the feed line into the stuff and leave a double tail for it to sit on..

Wow this is hard to explain in text... Take a two foot wide strip of the plastic mesh and wrap it over 1/2" plastic spiral tube. Then sew it on.. This gives you about a one foot wide foot of mesh that goes on the part, on top of peel ply, with about a six inch riser to keep the tube, and its heat, off the part.

Mostly we only use this to feed the resin into areas of core and rely on the core as the main flow medium. We don't trust the mesh over the core 'cause we fear it may give a false reading on how things are flowing.

Knotty boys, post your address and I'll send you a sample box, cheap USPS, to try out.

-jim lee

[rehanmerchant]

http://www.lantor.nl/index.php/id_st...599/soric.html

See how Rocat uses it to create their cat pontoons
http://www.rocat.co.uk

There are 2 images I have attached from Rocats website
1 shows you soric beign infused and the other shows the 3 layers
1 soric and 2 biaxial fiberglass fabric

Also visit the link below and scroll down the left navigator to see how they use soric in vacuum infusion

http://www.rocat.co.uk/galleries/development.htm

Here are some of the flow medias I have tested succesfully
1. Burlap or jute
2. Mousquito net
3. Garden mesh - Green Color

Now I am using soric as it is a very professional flow media.

Some other sources for combination flow media.
1. Search for coremat on google
2. Comflex and Breatex at:
http://www.fibertex.com/en-GB/busine...omposites.aspx
3. Diabgroup.com
4. Nidacore

[yimannuer]

We are a factory named SANNO PLASTIC&WIRE MESH CO.,LIMITED-CHINA for making resin flow netting, you can visit our website following to get more infomations.
http://www.plastic-nets.com/artsingle-en_23.html
We supply our infusion netting to a lot of companies with cheaper price and higher quality.
Now we have two kinds of resin flow netting, one is 100g/sqm and price is US$0.50 /sqm fob tianjin port china ; the other one is 230g/sqm and its price is US$0.92 /sqm fob tianjin port china.
SIZE DETAILS:
1) 100g/sqm roll size= 1.2m x 100m
2) 230g/sqm roll size= 1.2m x 50m

If you want to get more info, so please send us a email by sales@plastic-nets.com then we will reply to you soon.