What is it?
The EC! Materials Library catalogs specific fiber, core, resin and process materials as well as a growing number of laminate samples. The idea is to share basic information about weight, manufacturing processes and cost reference for a wide variety of composite components and combinations.
Reference sections include details about materials and images of a wide variety of reinforcements, cores and process materials. The Laminate Sample Index lists all the samples in a variety of categories.
Why?
The idea here is to create a public reference to help you compare manufacturing and material options before starting on your own testing. If you want to see some 4-6mm foam cored carbon samples to help inform choices for a project – there they are! It won’t solve your problem but it’ll give you a place to start when making your own test panels. If your customer asks you the difference between pre-preg and infusion – just send him a link to the videos. If your customer’s engineer wants to better understand your laminating method, send her a link. These aren’t meant to be an authority on how exactly to do stuff – just a set of useful references to help make composites choices easier. They also point out many of the common mistakes you should avoid!
The other big reason is that they are easy and quick and I get to practice making videos and doing demonstrations on the simplest kind of part: a small flat panel. Over time this will give me a big library of different materials and processes to refer to from other parts of EC!. Test panels are almost always a great idea, and I encourage you to start a library of your own – and document it well. It’s always nice to break out a box of actual stuff when discussing manufacturing options – because nothing beats the real thing in your hand!
How is it Organized?
Start with the Laminate Sample Index. This breaks down the samples by different categories – resin type, reinforcement type, thickness, etc. Someday I’ll make a downloadable spreadshseet!
Each laminate sample has a page (well, some do) and a “how I was made” video. These videos are meant to serve as process documentation and also education on specific processing techniques. I will try to provide a laminate schedule for each – and in the future to have a downloadable version.
There are also several specific Reference sections:
These outline the range of materials and their properties and include a wide variety of samples.
Mistakes!
You will notice that most of the material sample videos also have some minor or major problem that I encounter. One goal in making these panels is to provide a reference set for making material choices – but my even bigger goal is to teach about how to have success with composites! So I’m also using them to illustrate processes used in composites manufacturing – and lots of times things go wrong. It is really educational to see this happen and understand why.
I will not include any truly dismal failures, but I will include samples that don’t turn out ideally. Sometimes I will point out that something I’m doing is problematic and then show it play out. My point is that if you see me make a mistake, and know that its a possibility, you will keep an eye out for it in your own work. EC! is about sharing knowledge – how, and how NOT to do stuff. I’m going to keep it real – even if I do “perform” the occasional mistake. But don’t worry – lots of them are unscripted too!
On Units
EC! uses a mix of imperial and metric. I acknowledge that metric is vastly more universal and makes much more sense for a species with ten fingers. I’m a little bit embarrassed about the US still using inches and pounds – but the contrarian in me likes it! Besides, it’s what I learned first and it is more intuitive for me. I have mixed and matched and used both interchangeably. I try to provide both as much as possible. The materials library entries will be one or the other… it’s easy enough to translate. Pre-preg is usually metric because the manufacturers give all the data in metric.
Suggestions?
Please get in touch with requests. If you want to contribute a sample that would be awesome!