curing

I will produce a 2 meter long autonomous boat from carbon fiber. Do you recommend that I cure it? If you recommend that I cure it, which resin should I use?

 

All resins need to cure or they stay in a liquid state, so I'm assuming you mean do they need to go through a prescribed heat cycle for better physical properties.

Since you plan to use carbon fiber you'll be using epoxy, so yes, post curing adds a great deal to the physical properties of the resin.

As for a resin choice, it comes down to the method you plan use, infusion, vacuum, hand laid, etc. Plus what's available in your current location.

 

I've never treated it before. Can you explain how to do this or are there any resources I can learn from? They also said that if I treat it, I should put it at a temperature of 70°C. Is this true?

 

Every resin will be different, so you'll need to go by what the epoxy supplier recommends, which should be on the data sheet.

You need to put the entire finished part in some enclosed space so it can be heated to the correct temperature for the correct amount of time. If you live in a hot climate it's not too difficult.

 

To do this, we thought of doing 1 layer of gelcoat and 2 layers of 450 csm on top of it. Is this enough?

We thought about designing an oven for this application, could this speed up the work?

 

You won't be using either of those products (gel coat or CSM) if you are using epoxy.

An oven will work great.

 

Structural elements need compression and tension just like stayed masts or a wooden-fabric chair

Fabric on fabric canoes usually are done with cotton and curing lindseed oil but also fabrics can be waterproofed with soy wax or coconut oil so they remain flexible and the tension can be trimmed bringing more tension than the average plastic resin glass fiber fabric

A boat could be built with a Sandwich of tensioned hemp fabric and veneer wood in several layers and will do good having both compression from the wood and tension from the fabric and it will be light


Usually fabric on frames canoes are 50-30% lighter than fiberglass shell canoes while carbon fiber shells are only 15% lighter

 

I post cured my hulls. I rented a shipping container and ran it through an 8 hour heat cycle two times. I used wireless monitors and propane heaters.

It added about 8% to some of the properties, but I don’t remember all the specifics.