Wet lay carbon fibre - any experience?

[Muncher]

Anyone have experience with wet lay carbon fibre?

I'm looking to buy some carbon fabric, I think I need 650gram weighting but I'm unsure exactly what weave/weight I should be buying, and importantly where to buy it from for a good price?

[Rothgo Wooft]

I've heard from a friend in the trade, its cheaper to buy it from the States than it is to get in the UK. I don't remember the company he uses, so not much use.

[TheEnd]

the weave depends on what it is for

some into here
http://www.solarcomposites.com/fabricchoice.html

[jjones]

to get a good finish you will need to look at vacuum bagging i think

[Liokault]

And a very good tool to lay up against.

[Davi]

yep, it's no different from glass really, just use epoxy resin instead for a stronger / better result. You do not need vacuum bagging for a good finish, merely a good mould. Vacuum bagging simply makes for a stronger / lighter end product (resin is the weak bit, you end up with about 1/3rd as much resin with vacuum bagging). Weave and thickness depends on application, multiple thinner layers with altered orientation are stronger and lighter than one super heavy weave, Speak to Marineware for tons of help and not bad pricing too. They will do deals on full rolls.

ETA... with the weave, although twill is easier to make conform to tight curves, if you've not done it before it can be a bit of a bh to keep the pattern looking good as it's very easy to distort it on layup, so consider if you want the carbon seen or are painting it! For a complete novice an initial layer of very fine weight would be easier to get a half decent finish on IMO.

Edited by Davi on Wednesday 21st April 09:51

[Liokault]

If you have a tool already, try approaching one of the small (ish) companies that have an autoclave. The main expense of carbon fibre is the tool so if you have that covered then its just bagging, autoclave time then you can do the de-bagging and trimming yourself.

Try NPI in Coventry or ProDrive in Milton Keynes.

[Muncher]

I've been having various GRP parts made for a few years now, by the same place down in Somerset.

VX220 hardtops, Elise hardtops, bonnets, boot lids, rollbar covers, turbo intakes. All are made from molds I own in GRP.

There seems to be a fair amount of demand for carbon fibre finished parts so we're looking into using carbon in the existing moulds. The problem is the place I use have no experience using carbon fibre at all, other than a little trial with a lighter weight weave which, where the strands kept coming apart as it was laid up.

[Davi]

Muncher said:

I've been having various GRP parts made for a few years now, by the same place down in Somerset.

VX220 hardtops, Elise hardtops, bonnets, boot lids, rollbar covers, turbo intakes. All are made from molds I own in GRP.

There seems to be a fair amount of demand for carbon fibre finished parts so we're looking into using carbon in the existing moulds. The problem is the place I use have no experience using carbon fibre at all, other than a little trial with a lighter weight weave which, where the strands kept coming apart as it was laid up.

that is down to their technique, not the weight of the weave. You do have to be careful with it - for starters, before making any cuts you either tape the edge or my prefered technique is to spray lightly with some 3M spray mount, to keep the edges stable (essential on areas that need to be cut to conform to shape).

I use exactly the same moulds for CF or GF, with no issues on quality or finish at all.

Edited by Davi on Wednesday 21st April 13:31

[Muncher]

They said the strands just moved about fair too easily when it was laid down, basically falling apart. Would a heavier grade not be a little more forgiving?

[Davi]

Muncher said:

They said the strands just moved about fair too easily when it was laid down, basically falling apart. Would a heavier grade not be a little more forgiving?

Put money on they used a loose twill weave then - a plain weave holds together fine, even a 2/2 twill is a complete nightmare to lay in comparison, but again, it will be purely down to their technique. One of the things I make requires the lightest weight twill you can buy and is a compound curve so tight it still only just conforms, and I still get it out perfect more times than not