Finally !!

Incredible stuff. How do you make a mix so carefull that it doesnt go off too quick or just as bad --not at all?

I know bloody well what would happen if I tried this, either half a boat or 70 feet of soggy mat

 

Dont you read whats written at the bottom of my posts recently !!

"KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THE PRODUCTS YOU ARE USING "
Get up close and personal with them and find what makes em tick !!
I do and posted a few pictures to prove it !!.

 

Ok Im a bit dumb on this sort of stuff so run it through again.

How many 50 gall drums would be needed for 70 foot and what do you do then pour in a cup full of resin and turn the pump on, common spell it out for the dumb guy.

Ive only ever bought a half gall of polyester with a little bag of hardener. Ive done it many times and still had F ups dabbing in matting with a paint brush.

I have a feeling we are miles apart in methods. Sorry for asking a dumb question.

 

I feel sorry for tunnels that we discussed something irrelevant to your thread.
I make everything in infusion systematization. Before my job, the 75ft hull and 60ft hull both infused in 4 hours. So i can say management is also a key point in infusion.

 

Ok ille try to get the question over again. How do you mix somethings together that has such a sensative go off time. With what do you mix into what. I mean a bucket and a tea cup.

 

I use drill gun match with stirrer. Use a bucket mark with a 15kg level. Use a cup which is totally right to the ratio when it is full with M50. We mixed vinylester resin and M50 IN 1 MINUTE(We infused a panel to make sure 1 minute mixing time is enough). So you can do the math how much resin we can get in 1 hour.

 

For smaller projects a bucket or cement bucket and a power drill will do.

The larger the project, the larger the machinery. Here is a picture of an infusion system where batches of 130 kgs of resin are mixed and degassed before infusion. The system is thought out so well that there is only very minimal handling, apart from opening a couple of valves.

I have the connecting schemes if someone wants them.

For even larger projects industrial mixing equipment is used. We once did an object (sorry, cannot be specific) 70 meter long, which consumed 35 tons of resin in 2 hours. This called for highly specific mixing systems, which mixed without the introduction of air.

For epoxy resins there are slow hardeners available, for polyester idem. You can influence polyester even more by playing with cobalt level, retarders and promotors, to get the geltime you want, and the final cure you want. (within certain limits of course).

General purpose resin as is sold so often has a 20-ish minute geltime, with standard curing agent. This is well suited for many applications. Do not forget to accurately measure the curing agent, and mix well.

 

Please dont stop this is all very interesting and i wish there was more like it so people can get more ideas of production processes and how people cope with large quantities of material and how it can be slowed down yet still go hard over a given period of time .

When i arrived here in china the company had been told the chopper gun was the thing and would speed up there process . now 2 years down the track the chopper has been removed and its just a saturater unit like i had advised then to do 12 months ago . All new systems take a while for people to accept and sort of understand that they can help not take over

 

For god sake, 35 tons in 2 hours, this equipment is so amazing. Can you send me the schemes, i really want to figure out how it works, i can't see it clearly in your picture though.
My e-mail address is coolgps365@gmail.com

 

Are you working in Guangdong right now? I saw some pics of your gallery, it is your design job, seems very cool.
Yes, It is kind of hard to accept new system in China,especially when all workers get used to old one, and they think what they do is very good.

 

Same here. I did an infusion demo at a boatyard, and the English laminators were anxiously looking at what we were doing. They probably realised that they would either need to learn new techniques, or sabotage the infusion. They choose the latter....

Luckily it was a relatively small part, but still. After the infusion completed, we went to pick up the car, to load things up, while the part was curing. When we returned, a large corner of vacuumfilm was pulled, and the pump shut off. Of course no-one saw anything...

 

Please dont go off to e mails or Pm's lets see it here up front so we can all see it.

Whats the secrecy.

I still don't understand or has it been posted how,--- what is the method of mixing proportions. Not a mixing stick in a drill I know that.

Your talking tons here --how do you mix at the right %

 

It's not a secret, you can buy equipment with built in on demand mixers. This equipment mixes catalyst in as needed. Therefore it doesn't matter if you are using 1 gallon or 1000 gallons of resin.

http://www.rtmcomposites.com/rtmlightequip.html

 

If workers dont want to embrace new things and new ways with new technology they need to leave and dont come back there is no place for them and they will always be a burden to others that want to learn and get on with the job , with that kind of mental attaude they are better off site and not allowed any where near the place .
All the bagging and big jobs i do one person is assigned to watch over, check pressures monitor ,note and write down any changes and the time they happened !!. To much money is at stake and the time involved to replace or repair and redo is just not worth the risk of some smart idiot ruining it

 

Thanks for that Red dwarf, curiosity solved.

Does this machine inject as the resin is going in the pipe or does it mix up in a big drum first.