Vacuum Infusion of a 24 meter racer
Maxi Jena - Preliminary testing

We started the project with some trial infusions. The goals of those tests are:

Verify that carbon is properly impregnated with epoxy resin;
Obtain material parameters for the computer simulations;
Get some hands-on experience with the CVI process.

First of all, the carbon should be very well impregnated with epoxy using the CVI process. It worked out very well; if that would not have been the case, we should have found another solution, like modifying the lay-up of the reinforcement, using another flow-medium (maybe two-sided) etc.

Recording the position of the front as a function of time, together with the resin viscosity provides sufficient information to run the simulation. Using the results from infusion of the actual laminates used in the final product is most accurate.

The tests also allow us to show the basics of the CVI process: handling the materials, dry lay-up of reinforcement, peelply and flow medium, application and sealing of the bag.

Photographs

Use the controls below the image to view the photographs. In addition to a test of four different laminates (the first one is the thickest laminate with flow medium and peelply on both sides, the last one is peelply and flow medium only without any carbon), we did a test of the thickest laminate on a glass plate. At the backside, you can see the difference of the resin front position in the carbon compared to the visual front in the flow medium.