Peel ply resin breaks - Enhancing resin infusion

Enhancing resin infusion with peel ply resin breaks and segmented perimeter vacuum lines

When using the resin infusion process to make a composite part, the combination of a peel ply resin break (although maybe it should be called a resin brake?) and a segmented vacuum line around the perimeter of the laminate can deliver the following benefits:

1. Improved control over the resin distribution pattern
2. Reduced resin wastage
3. Reduced risk of resin trap overflows
4. Less vacuum tubing wastage and reduced resin trap cleaning.

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Or use MTI hose, in which case you do not need a resin brake at all anymore.

 

Hello Herman,

Our post regarding peel ply breaks and segmented perimeter vacuum lines was intended to help laminators obtain better infusion results from peel ply and low cost spiral cut tubing. We are most definitely not trying to inhibit innovation, but have some reservations about the use of the MTI hose for all infusions. These are:

1. It would appear easy to over-feed resin into the part – especially one-off parts. We understand that excess resin can be withdrawn from the resin feed side of the part after the laminate has been filled, but having to do this negates one of the benefits of the MTI hose. Feeding resin into the laminate from a partially evacuated resin feed pot would avoid the risk of over-filling, but this could be more of a complication than a resin trap for many laminators.

2. We would also be concerned using the MTI hose on a complicated one-off part where the flow pattern of the resin front is not completely predictable. If the resin flow front should encircle an air pocket, we don’t see how the MTI hose will allow the air pocket to be moved to the perimeter vacuum line. While it may result in resin wastage, using peel ply and spiral cut vacuum tubing does allow some manipulation of the resin front. We don’t see how the same degree of flow front manipulation can be achieved with MTI hose. The MTI hose may be fine for repetition parts, but we are not sure it’s the ideal solution for one-offs.

3. From the published prices, the MTI hose seems to be considerably more expensive than spiral cut tubing.

Regards,
Tri