EC! Laminate Sample #1: Light wet-layup carbon skins of 9mm Nomex honeycomb, hand laid in two cures.
- Reinforcement: 200g / 6oz carbon cloth
- Resin: Totalboat 5:1 Epoxy
- Core: 40kg Nomex, 9mm thickness
Total weight: 4.6 oz per square foot. Approx 1.45kg per square meter.
Overview:
This panel was not really supposed to be a “Laminate Sample” but I was testing this anyway just to see weights vs pre-preg and decided to start working on this as part of EC! Laminate samples were always something I wanted to do – and including a video seemed helpful. It’s not a particularly systematic place to start, but here it is.
My goal was to see what kind of cosmetics and weight I could get for very light cored panels. I was concerned about the surface finish and pinholes – and boy did I get pinholes! I was also concerned about the bond to the honeycomb – which seems great. Doing wet-laminated work with honeycomb is hard because the top skin always wants to press into the cells and leave little depressions. Here I just went around that problem by doing each skin as one cure.
I think that the idea is sound, but resin viscosity (from the cold), lack of rolling the carbon with a wetout-roller and my trying to use as little resin as possible were problems. With heavier skins, slightly more resin, or better wetting through to the surface, this could have been much better. Of course you could always cure the skin plies under a vacuum bag and then cut them out and bond both sides to the honeycomb in one glue-up. I’ll try this in a later laminate sample!
Video:
