Infusion Speed

I ran a test infusion panel last night.

The infusion stack was:
45/45 12 oz biax
0/90 12 oz biax
h80 1/2" divinycell (perforated)
0/90 12 oz biax
45/45 12 oz biax
peel ply
Green airtech flow media

Resin was Proset INF 114/212 epoxy

The panel was about 30" wide by 44" long and I infused it the long way with inlet on one 30" side and vacuum on the other 30" side. I infused the long way so I could get a feel for the flow rate and see if I could beat the resin gel time. The panel came out very nice looking, nice clear laminate on both sides, fully wet out except just a few fibers on the bottom look a tad dry. It doesn't look like the bottom laminate was resin starved, it looks like the PVA I had down on the infusion table may have interfered but I'm not entirely certain.

The question is this: it took about 12 min for the resin to flow 44", which seems pretty fast relative to other infusions I've seen people do. The resin front traveled extremely quickly within the first minute but after that the rate of travel was about the same ( 3"/min or so).

Is the rate of infusion too fast? Should I be trying to slow it down? If so, what's my best strategy? Thanks in advance.

 

Maybe I should attempt to simplify the question:

Most infusion instructional I’ve watched have a 30-45min infusion time for a resin flow distance of any significant length. Is infusing 44” in 12 minutes too fast? Is the decent looking infusion that resulted a fluke?

 

There is no too fast or too slow, every slight change you make in the laminate schedule, core, flow media, feed line placement, exact resin, etc, will influence the speed and distance.

Unless you have a great deal of experience the first part is mostly just a best effort situation. After that you fine tune the all the materials to achieve your goal.