Vacuum Infusion of a Contest 55 - Conyplex (CLS TUD-TNO)

Conyplex - Contest 55

The company Conyplex b.v. has developed Vacuum Infusion manufacturing technology for production of sailing yacht hulls and decks in cooperation with the Centre of Lightweight Structures TUD-TNO (CLS TUD-TNO) - a pioneering RTM-Worx user, because it's predecessor p7 was developed at TNO (by Arjen Koorevaar, currently the owner and director of Polyworx).

Infusion of the hull

On this page, examples of simulations and some photographs (kindly provided by CLS TUD-TNO) are shown to illustrate the application of RTM-Worx. Animations are available from the simulations for the hull and deck of the Contest 55 sailing yacht.

At the right, you can see the results from the simulations for the hull, as they were carried out by CLS TUD-TNO. Snapshots are shown at 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% filled respectively (click the picture for a filling animation).

The parameters for the simulation have been obtained from several experiments, among which was infusion of a segment out of the hull (complete sandwhich with balsa and glass).

The pictures below show: the preparation (1), four stages during infusion of the hull (2-5), demoulding (6) and a close-up of the infused hull (7).

Application of materials (glass and balsa core)

Detailed information about this project can be found at:

A webpage on the CLS TUD-TNO site presented by Arlen Hoebergen as a paper at the JEC'99 conference in Paris in April 1999. Has links to additional pictures too.
The Conyplex website. To see Vacuum Infusion examples, go to [News], click on [Recent Innovations] (small picture upper left of contents frame), and finally click on 'Hull produced with environmental friendly vacuum bagging'.

Simulation for the deck

The image below shows the filling pattern for the deck. This simulation has been carried out and RTM-Worx project (WRX) files have been provided to us by the CLS TUD-TNO (click image for an animation of the infusion process).

Simulation for the C55 deck by CLS TUD-TNO

You can also download the animations (AVI movies). Right click on the images (or on the links in the menu at the left) and select 'Save Target As...' (Internet Explorer) or 'Save Link As...' (Netscape Navigator).