Infusion advice

I am considering trying to do infusion on this part. Probably a few layers of woven roving and biaxial; around 8mm thick glass.

I am nervous about whether the resins will all end up flowing in the bottom and wetting too slowly.

part is 12' long, about 12" wide each side, with a relief on each upper side (the relief also has me worried about it acting as a damn and gravity fighting me

I can hand laminate, but wouldn't mind an airless job with 25% less weight and been wanting to try it.

Note, the relief on the left will also be on the right.

I don't have much gum tape flange, but maybe just enough..

What is the strategy to get up a ridge of 3mm? Or, in general?

 

ps....don't worry about sealing it...that part I know about..

 

I'm not pursuing this, but if anyone wants to advise the layout; others may benefit.

I was warned it is not an amateur job due to the types and thickness of glass.

 

I would have put the feed line in the bottom of the V, and the vacuum lines on top of the flanges. All lines full lenght, the vacuum lines GoreTex lined, and generous break in front, to insure a good wetout.
I presume you have unidirectional fibers and have been told those suck the resin away and race it to the vacuum line. It's true, that's why you need to slow the resin flow significantly shortly before the vacuum line.

 

The fiber plan was not for infusion.

But something like

WR600x2
BIAX600x4
WR600x2

was also warned the laminate needs to be spec'd for infusion, so not wanting to go down the road wrong..

been wanting to learn, would have loved to shed some weight here, but not wet bagging it

it is the wrong project to learn on; my heart is in the right place, skillset not

 

I am confused.
Your first post you said " I am considering trying to do infusion on this part. Probably a few layers of woven roving and biaxial; around 8mm thick glass."

Your last answer "The fiber plan was not for infusion."

 

Yeah. I realize the laminate needs to be setup as infusion, and a third party told me the schedule is not for infusion. I did not realize you can't really infuse anything..

 

Fallguy, you can infuse your 4800gsm stack easily.
It will be 4mm versus 6mm hand laminating.

Do a small test piece 12" long will do to convince yourself, resin viscosity needs to be < 350 MPas.
Transition the relief with a 45 deg bevel.
Andrew

 

I was told to change the spec to 7000gsm yesterday. What glass could be done 7000gsm with infusion? Can you vary the stack between WR and BIAX? If so, how?

There is an angle to the relief, but varies a bit.

Flange is probably short.

This cries for infusion; I'm just not ready...would use less resin, too,

There is also a relief forward for the nosecone skin..

 

You can infuse any type of glass cloth, cloth with more space between tows will be faster to infuse.
I once had a triaxial -45/90/+45 that was very difficult to hand wet out there was always some whiteness in the middle 90 fiber, this infused crystal clear.
I have never been able to match the quality of impregnation with infusion by open hand laminating or wet bagging.

The thickest solid glass flange that I have done was 24 x 500gsm uni plus 7 x 450gsm DB, worked perfectly but was only 200m wide.

There was no way I was going to attempt this without doing a test piece first, you need to do the same.

The mold needs to be very solid and well supported as the bag will want to pull the two sides together, your test piece would show if it was solid enough.

 

I'm gonna hand lay it. Sadly.

 

In your case if you had to increase number of ply's to maintain thickness then hand laminate makes more sense as it will be lighter.

But do yourself a favor and do a small test piece with scrap off cuts so that infusion is an option for you next time.