Infusion Plan

Hi Jorge - acrylic will craze and crack eventually, use clear PVC. PVC will self release so if waxing is not quite right you won't get a stick up. Epoxy will bond to acrylic so a stick up can happen. Otherwise keep going!! Peter S

 

Your sides can be done on the flat tool also jorge... that much bend is no big deal for these panels... If your worried about introduced stress, simply heat the panel beyond the Tg of the epoxy (which will be a very low temp when its freshly cured @ 24hrs) and it softens the resin and releives the stress and post cures the laminate all at the same time.

 

Cool, thanks for that tip, Im chomping at the bit to try.

I saw you make a major bend on your thread - with boiling water I think - so I don't doubt you. I have a sort of compound curve at the bow, it's curving in but also flaring out a bit.

Actually you just gave me an idea ... after infusing flat, prop one or both ends up slightly to get that slight curve started?? You could probably even create a slight twist for the flare,,, maybe enough not to need any kerfs!!!

That means only one huge flat tool and you could infuse all the components at the same time!! Now that is saving time and money!!!

 

Twisted panels are the same story... they are still developable. ie- able to be made from flat panels.

As to the rest, have you seen this before? It skips through very quickly in some places, you may have to pause it to get a good idea of whats going on. Also note the infusion grid core as opposed to flow media...

 

Pretty amazing, I love that infusion cut, what a difference, they did not use peel ply either it seems.

I guess I have to try it, how would you heat a panel up? It seems like it would be a lot of work.

Do you think bending the core on a tool would seal the flow channels?

 

Hi Jorge - pvc foam bends quite easily with a heat gun. The usual grooves here in Oz are 2mmx2mm. These are unlikely to close up when bent. But be careful with corners. They "dog ear" and go out of shape if overheated. Cheers Peter S

 

Peter are you talking about after infusing to use a heat gun? I used a heat gun with the Corecell but that was pre-infusion.

 

New Innovation!!! :idea:

So I am getting pretty good at infusing panels and I have resin waste down to what is left in the hose and a few ounces in the bucket.

A convenient and easy way to get that resin out and possibly seal off the hose at the same time might be to PIG it. Put a steel ball (the same diameter as the ID of the hose) in the end when your bucket is empty. The vacuum will draw the ball through the hose forcing all the excess resin into the part.

When the ball hit's the connection point such as a T or one of the through bag connectors it will not be able to pass and helps seal the hose. I would still clamp the hose off just in case.

I have not tried this yet but it's already been semi proven cleaning pipelines. Imagine you can save a bit of resin and probably reuse your inlet hoses!!

 

Be really careful Jorge, as the pig is intended to slip this means it can suck air around it into the job. Don't try and scrimp on the last few ounces of resin yet screw up the job!!Just make your hoses as short as possible.

Peter S

 

Yes I will be careful, ready to clamp line.

The main reason is I get to reuse the hose at least once. I ordered the steel balls Tuesday if I see it is working I will try and shoot a little video of it.

Anything I can do to have less plastic to throw away, I need to do it!!

 

test your theory on something small and not important!! Good luck Peter S

 

For sure on that, Thanks

 

Here is a little bit of video from my iphone on yesterdays panel infusion. Going to do another now.

http://youtu.be/E5m8P5tGAAA

 

Completed another panel infusion and learned a couple new things. First off, I messed up on the prep. On the bottom side I cut a break in the flow media around the outlet and on the top side I completely forgot to do it. I noticed about 2 minutes after opening the line.

When the resin front on the top reached the outlet I clamped the vacuum and checked the bottom. The resin from the top had passed to the bottom creating two small dry islands on either side of the hole .. about 4" square each but lucky I had a good bag, they were filling in.

After a couple of minutes when it seemed that it had stalled, but almost filled, I unclamped the vacuum hose and the resin continued to fill in the dry spot. The infusion was saved without sucking up much resin.

What I learned was that on the topside with the infusion flow media running all the way to the outlet, the resin front reached it perfectly on all sides??? From now on I am going to make my break much smaller, like 2" all the way around.

The other thing I learned was that in an emergency you can crimp the vacuum line just enough so that it hinders resin passing but air can still get through. Using a small section of MTI hose would be a good idea on these infusions.

 

didnt i say 2 inches break like months ago??? In the infusion thesis ive read - im sure ive linked you to it in the past - it proves that 2inches is enough to remove all the lag in almost any laminate due to the front speed and distance travelled being proportional to the permeability squared. So get rid of the flow media in one section (the high permeability) the fronts will even out / catch up quite quickly, 2 inches is considered sufficient. Its also the reason why a fishbone resin feed eventually ends up with an even (not wavy) resin front given sufficient distance to do so. ie -the flow front speed is also proportional to the distance squared, given constant permeability.