Vacuum Infusion Archives - Explore Composites!

New Video: Hot Mold, Cold Resin: Vacuum Infusion Flow Test

by ChrisMay 18, 2020May 25, 20202

This video is about a test I did to see how far I could get fast infusion resin to flow under a caul plate. To optimize for thermal considerations I made the mold (table) surface hot to reduce resin viscosity and make it flow faster. I kept the resin in the pot cooler to keep it from gelling too fast. Laminate is 1.6mm of woven (face plies) and biaxial e-glass in a balanced QI layup. Besides using fast resin – which was just asking for trouble – it worked better than I thought it would.

Certainly with some tuning and slower resin, it would be possible to infuse large plates/parts with two molded surfaces. In this case I was testing to see if a two-sided tool could do for a project I’m working on… sort of a VRTM process but with disposable bag over a caul plate instead of two full tools. Would like to try perimeter feed to a center vacuum point!

This experiment will also show up as Laminate Sample #19. I’m doing a run of e-glass/epoxy variations – at least until I finally get my hands on some vinyl-ester infusion resin!

Also – I’m loving the thermal camera. As with many tools that once you have them you find tons of uses for them – this is something I wish I bought 5 years ago! This is a low-mid range hand-held Flir unit. Going to try to use it to find vacuum leaks next!

Little 3D Printed Infusion Bucket Clamp

by ChrisJanuary 24, 2020January 24, 2020

I have always struggled to keep the hose in small infusion buckets. Every now and then a clamp slips or I bump a hose and it pulls out and air goes in and everything gets messed up. Besides the bucket screwed to a board (with a fender washer inside the bucket) to hold pots of resin from tipping over – which is my favorite – this is a positive new development:

I printed this from PLA and am a little worried about the thing snapping off at the lip that holds the bucket lid. So far though it works pretty well! Can’t bring myself to use the Markforged and make a stronger one – it’ll be like five bucks! This one on the Fusion3 with PLA is 80 cents or so.

You can see if featured in the videos for Laminate Samples #7 and #9 in the material library.

If you want to print one – check out GrabCAD and search for “infusion”. This won’t be the last version, and you’ll have to scale it to use the right size hose – it’s set up for 3/8″ (9mm) OD hose – but it might be useful.