Infusion Q&A

Discussion in 'Fiberglass and Composite Boat Building' started by jim lee, Dec 17, 2009.

  1. jim lee
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    jim lee Senior Member

    Anyway vicgin, to answer your original question.. We learned our first bits in infusion class at our local junior college. From there it was trial and error along with squeezing any info possible from every source we could find.

    -jim lee
     
  2. gonzo
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    gonzo Senior Member

    How does it compare in price and quality to pre-preg?
     
  3. jim lee
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    jim lee Senior Member

    Never tried prepreg.
     
  4. gonzo
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    gonzo Senior Member

    I guess infusion has more flexibility on resins and hardeners, but is harder to control the quality.
     
  5. AndrewK
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    AndrewK Senior Member

    Quality of infused laminates is one of the main reasons I infuse.
    Infusion is cheaper and if you use resin with comparable mechanical properties and the same consolidating pressure and cure conditions the quality will be the same.
     
  6. Herman
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    Herman Senior Member

    Infusion vs prepreg:

    Prepreg need heat to cure, infusion does not need heat
    Prepreg need a heat resistant mould and consumables, infusion not
    Prepreg needs to be debulked every 5 layers or so. Infusion can be a 1 go operation.
    Prepreg needs a learning curve for materials, temperature ramps and times. Infusion needs a learning curve for materials, resin flow and layup details.
    Prepreg has a shelf life, infusion materials not
    Prepreg needs to be stored cold, infusion materials not.

    Both will produce high quality products when done right.
    Also both work relatively clean.

    What I see is that certain products that have been made with infusion, are being changed to prepreg, but also prepreg products which are being made with infusion now.
     
  7. jonr
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    jonr Senior Member

    1 person likes this.
  8. Herman
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    Herman Senior Member

    I have seen more prepreg manufacturers of blades get into trouble, then infusion based manufacturers.

    I guess partially due to the trouble finding skilled labour, and partially due to badly spec'd materials.
     
  9. vicgin
    Joined: Jan 2005
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    vicgin Junior Member

    Ur suggestions are appreciated

    thanks for all the suggestions and advice guys,
    I have removed the station molds and am converting the base to a flat table.
    Will use smooth tile board sheets as the top laminate surface.

    Waiting for warmer weather to actually begin.

    Meantime am converting 30 yr old plans and scantlings (math is not my strong suit). They are for twin hulls 36"x40' ea. Houseboat is 9300lbs disp. 12x40 overall.

    With electric propulsion (under 9 knots top speed) and protected waters only in mind, how thick should the foam core and glass laminate for the bottom and sides be? Using the infusion process.

    regards all
    Herbert
     
  10. jonr
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    jonr Senior Member

    After a lot of calculations, I came up with 42. But I'm not sure what the units are :).
     
  11. AndrewK
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    AndrewK Senior Member

    vicgin, best to start another thread if you want to discuss your build, leave this for Infusion Q&A.
    If you have plans then have them converted for composite build.
    For 12m (40') hulls core thickness in foam will be 16 - 20 mm (0.62 - 0.75") can be a bit less in balsa.
    Laminates around 750 - 1200gm2 (22 - 36oz/sy) plus a bit extra on the bottom if you are going to ground often. I assume these are going to be flat panel hard chine hulls, so could add 1/4 ply to the bottom panel for grounding protection.
     
  12. vicgin
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    vicgin Junior Member

    Good idea AndrewK. This thread was closest to the info I needed with searches.
    I appreciate your calculations. Your assumption of flat panel construction is correct.
    Regards
     
  13. 13AL
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    13AL Junior Member

    Is there a rule of thumb or a baseline for infusion resin line spacing or are there to many variables to have a rule of thumb? P.S. Thanks Jim for the thread
     
  14. AndrewK
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    AndrewK Senior Member

    13AL, yes too many variables
     

  15. AndrewK
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    AndrewK Senior Member

    Degassing resin

    I am finding that it can take over 10 minutes to completely degass epoxy resin which makes it impractical for my current practice of mixing 5kg batches as I would require multiple chambers.
    Is there a way of mixing without including air and being certain that there is no hardener left floating on top of the resin?
    Has anyone come up with an inexpensive metering and inline mixing system?

    Cheers
    Andrew
     
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