I have used a few tons of carbon fiber prepeg on racing sail trimarans and carbon masts.
Very expensive. Very technical material. Amateurism forbidden, surgical cleaniness mandatory. Needs a very costly tooling: freezers (not fridges, freezers) to store the prepegs, redundant system of strong vacuum pumps, excellent high temp oven.
And to rent or buy a very big diesel generator because if the grid electricity fails while "cooking" the prepeg, you'll throw in the garbage a few hundred thousands dollars of material.
Excellent in small pieces like rudders, daggerboards, foils and others. Becomes difficult in big pieces simply because of the scale and prices of the tooling. A medium size oven 40 feet long able to "cook" evenly a 35' hull needs already a special transformer from the electricity company.
A big oven like the Multiplast shipyard one draws more electricity than a small third world country when started.
05-22-2010, 05:42 AM
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