1. AN FRP QUESTION FROM SUBSCRIBERS.

Subscriber’s question by Ulrich Muller:
-“How to mold with Carbon fiber? ”

Composite 101, 202 and Advance answer:

This question comes by our question form on our website www.fiberglasstechnique.com often. Here’s the thing: Whether it’s carbon fiber, Kevlar or plain fiberglass the molding process is the same there’s no special preparation or special resin to use. You can make good quality, hand layup carbon parts, the same way has you would with fiberglass. The only difference is in the construction of the part. Since carbon fiber has better mechanical strength than other kind of fibers you will need less ply than with fiberglass to achieve the same stiffness. But if you are using carbon fiber with a gel coated part you want to place a fiberglass layer between the gel coat and the carbon fiber, likewise with the Kevlar. The gel coat doesn’t stick very well on carbon fiber.
Generally speaking, people use Carbon fiber with vacuum assisted molding technique to lower the resin Vs. fiber ratio. With hand layup, you will achieve a 50% fibers ratio while with vacuum bag it’s around 60%.
We’ve designed Composite 101 202 and Advance to show the basic of composite fabrication whether it’s fiberglass, Kevlar or carbon fibers. With the information from the composite visual guide, you’ll learn how to use different production technique such as hand layup, vacuum bagging and vacuum infusion every technique shown are applicable with Kevlar and carbon fiber and of course fiberglass. For more detail about the topic covered by this reference. I invite you to take a look at the table of content.

Available at Guide.FiberglassTechnique.Com