Easy Composites Ltd is one of the World's premier suppliers of advanced composite materials and equipment. We believe in providing the best possible technical information and advice to help customers all over the world achieve better products and master cutting edge techniques. One way in which we do this is by creating comprehensive video tutorials on a range of composites processes and sharing them with everyone.
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Hi to all. Back to the future!😂😂😂 This technology has been familiar to all aeromodellers worldwide since early 70th. The only difference is in the type of mould material. In those ages, foulks used machined (not CNC) billet steel and aluminium to "masterpiece" the moulds. I was watching this video with eager and mild smile. 😂😂😂 Be informed, such approach has been used by most control line (f2d combat, f2c race, f2a speed) modellers as well as free flight "timer" models for ages. The initiators of such a technology were the most brilliant world champions of former USSR (Russia and Ukraine) - those who have beaten the whole world by unattainable results and immaculate hand made production details. Sometimes I ponder that greatest F1 designer, late Sir Colin Chapman (founder of Lotus F1 team)has borrowed the idea of carbon technologies from aeromodellers of 60ths and 70ths.😂😂😂. Joke! Chapman is my paragon of virtue. This approach you have indicated in present video will be useful both for amateurs building their own drones/ quadcopters as well as for car manufacturers. For instance, the latter ones may produce ultralight and superbalanced propellers for radiator and intercooler "heat reduction". See, perfect heat efficiency and balance. Moreover, such propellers may have a variable angle of flow attack, like those of turbo propeller engines fighters of the world war 2. You got my point?😂 All the best to all chams and same to easycomposites! Keep save.
I don't have an oven large enough to accommodate the tubes I want to make. Can I cure carbon fiber without heat?
You can absolutely make carbon fibre parts using wet epoxy resin and dry fibre without oven curing. The problem is for complex parts like this, is that they really are suited to prepreg which unfortunately does need to be cured at elevated temperature. Sometimes paint curing ovens are good enough to cure prepreg and usually large enough to house vehicle parts. If you can find friendly bodyshop who may let you borrow their oven, that may be a solution for you.
we are a carbon fiber factory: drive.google.com/file/d/1pcuBYrvIEyrFObMdA0Cl2tzuTAVz0pKl/view?usp=drive_link
I'm in the USA, do you have a distributor here?
We don't have a specific US distributor but can ship from our UK site no problem.
@@easycompositestv Thank you, I will be ordering soon.
Hand strength? What about horizontal lines indicating hand strength?
Not sure what you're referring to here. Can you elaborate?
Hey guys I´m a big fan of your videos :) Sometimes unfortunately I get dry spots and other imperfections in my laminates. Obviously it would be better to prevent those in the first place. But in a formula student team with limited resources it would come in handy to know how to fix those imperfections without laminating a new part. Perhaps you can give me some useful tips or you might have enough ideas for a new upcoming video. Thank you in advance. Keep up the good work <3
Glad you find them useful. It's important to try and ensure that the fibres are fully wet out before you add more, be that more chopped tow or the next layer of fabric cloth this will help to reduce dry spots. Additionally drawing the resin up from underneath rather than applying it from the top can indicate that the resin has fully saturated through. If you do get dry spots on the surface you can remedy them with a coating of XCR, we actually demonstrate this technique in our '3D printed mould to carbon fibre part' video so would be well worth checking that out.
This is a great video. Now I'm waiting for the full fordge engine with high temperature resins in the pistons and Conrods.
Thanks for watching. The issue isn't just the temperature resistance but also wear rates and variation in thermal expansion compared to more traditional metallic materials.
Could one forge, perhaps, a hair comb? Probably not a razor…
If you had the patience to lay UD fibres down all of the 'teeth' then it could maybe work, although it is certainly on the fine scale for ensuring the cavity is fully free of air. Check out our latest tutorial on optimised forging techniques.
onyx is perfect for a lot of applications that would require rubber like parts I guess.
I did not enjoy dying in the end.
When is the "Paul" action figure going on sale?
You make this process seem less intimidating. Something I would like to see is fea, validation, etc.
FEA isn't particularly necessary on cosmetic trim pieces like this, that aren't under any critical loading. For components that were more integral to the structure you wouldn't really want to be using a domestic oven.
Can I use Carbon Fibre Tubes or Squares as Struts in larger Geodesic Domes to take advantage of the low weight...
Sure you could use carbon spars for this, you will probably need to manufacture sockets for the tubes/box section to slot into rather than cutting complex compound angles and bonding together.
what's the best 3d print materials for moulds?
We use PETG for all of our 3D printed compression moulds as it has a good balance of strength, print reliability and releasability.
Do you plan on testing bigger components like that suspension linkage?
It was really just for the demonstrating the more dowel pins to product the complex internal geometry. As it is a 'freehand' part there would be no direct comparison to measure it against.
Is it possible to drill a 5,2 mm hole on the upper and lower part of a carbonfiber roadbike fork in order to line up the braking cable internally? Or is this to high of a risk as you dont know how much this weakens the fork itself? Problem is you have clamping forces from the stem and also expanding forces from the expander?
We can't really advise on this I'm afraid as it would likely compromise the integrity of the fork to an unknown extent.
@@easycompositestv thought so. I think it's not worth the effort. But do you think with additional strengthening layers it could be possible?
@@Freeriderz666 Again, we can't really advise without knowing the original design parameters of the original part.
Damn good job as allways. You make crazy fine parts. Love it.
Excellent video What is the name of the Software for design the Mould ?
It's Fusion360. You can find similar tools in most CAD packages though. Thanks for watching!
I was doing work like this in the early 1980's except my moulds were created by pouring mould making epoxy compound around a master pattern. A bit trickier but overall it worked quite well.
We do show that method in our original video but as you say it does require a physical pattern or part to copy. For each part of the mould tool you also need to wait for the previous one to cure. The joys of modern tech allow all mould pieces to be printed at once.
Another excellent video! I wonder: can 'forged' carbon parts be used for higher temp applications? Is there a resin that can be used and maybe oven-cured to handle temperatures ~ 100-200C ? I'm thinking of parts that would connect to an engine block (not cylinder head), or maybe even engine block parts themselves...
You can use EL160 which can be post cured to give you a service temperature of 170°C. This would be more suited to a mould make from billet material or a high temperature casting resin such as TC160 so that the compression moulded parts can be post cured in mould. You also need to consider thermal expansion and durability of the parts as well as resistance to fuel and oils so an engine block may be a little optimistic.
Great video and useful tips. Thanks a lot
Thanks for the feedback, glad you found it useful.
Thanks for the great videos. Did you manage to avoid bridging on the locating features/Clamping bushes (35:00) without any radius? Br
Thanks for the feedback. Yes the features are pretty small so bridging wasn't really an issue due to the way it was lamainted. The laminating video will be ready soon so keep an eye out for that. It'll probably go live on the website first, so check back in the next week or so to see how we did it.
@@easycompositestv Thank you for the quick reply. I will look forward to the upcoming video.
Been watching your videos and they are great.
Thanks for watching.
hello, i dont know if you will see this, but what you think about vacuum preasure for molding? its for a small project
You could play around with a vacuum bag to compress the mould, but for larger pieces we find that it doesn't really provide enough force to fully close the mould halves. Using a vice also gives you tactile feedback as to when you're applying too much pressure on fragile 3D printed moulds. Additionally, as any air bubbles will expand inside the vacuum, there is the chance for greater voiding, rather than compressing any air pockets that may be present in the layup.
@@easycompositestv thank you, i think that will be ok, im going to do a carbon fiber mouse, thanks :D
I was thinking about aluminum carbon fiber laminated layer comes out with high tensile strength, but on pipe ... why you didn't demonstrate how much bar psi pressure inside it's tube could barely resist?
Maybe it's something we can look at in the future. I'd imagine that the roll wrapped tubes would perform pretty well given the fibres running round the circumference would all be in tension. Finding a way to securely block off the ends and have a valve which wouldn't blow out might be a challenge though.
@@easycompositestv just need imagination first place to change the future pal. Good idea
Does anyone know if carbon fiber contains PFAFs?
The best 3d print is Bambulab Carbon X1
This video is old now so probably won’t get a reply… but how is a carbon composite supposed to withstand the heat of an exhaust?
We're still here and still adding new content but we also try to answer all of the questions that come in regardless of the age of the video. Exhausts will use very high temperature resistance resin systems to help to withstand the temperatures often coupled with internal insulation and heat reflective materials to keep the surface temperatures down as well.
@@easycompositestv Awesome thanks! I’ve never heard of internal insulations being used in composites. I’d love to learn more about using composites in high heat applications! Also big thanks to you guys for all of the awesome free educational content you put up 🙏🏻
@@ggroombr Maybe it's something for us to cover in a future video. We do get a number of enquiries about high temperature components so could be a good one to cover. Thanks for following along.
I haven't bought my 3D printer yet but you've just given me the ultimate use case.
Kenekan ning toruwe pengaruh ndasmu kui
Aku ora yakin apa sing sampeyan maksud.
I’m currently doing a one of project like this. Question, once you get to the epoxy coating resin phase for something that requires a top and bottom half, do you do one side first let it cure all the way then flip it over and do the other side or, do one side to the required amount of coats (with proper rest times between coats) and flip it over when it gets to the tacky stage and do the top. I will not be removing the foam from the inside and will remain one whole piece, just want to make sure top and bottom half are properly bonded together. Your input would be greatly appreciated and this is an awesome tutorial video!
Hi, I'm not quite following your description with the 2 parts sorry. If you want to drop us an email with some photos, it might help to show what you're working on. The address is [email protected]
The professionalism and depth of knowledge showcased in this video are truly refreshing. I'm particularly interested in learning more about the application of both loose and woven hemp bast fibers in conjunction with your epoxy. Could you share insights on scalable solutions and any testing that has been done? Looking forward to a deeper dive into these innovative materials!
Thanks for the feedback Brandon and thanks for watching. I think we've replied to your email on this subject.
The one and only paul, best notification on youtube what a guy!
So could this be used to cars that does not have anymore parts manufactured by the brand and replace the metal suspension parts by these ”forged carbon” parts and how longlife would these be? Are these better for race cars where suspension parts are expected to be replaced after almost every race?
You could certainly use the process for parts which are no longer manufactured. From a safety aspect though, you would need to do some mechanical analysis and testing. Especially for high load, high speed applications such as racing cars.
Your back!
Bound aluminium with CF is very interesting theme, hope you would reveal best practices in that matter in next videos
Maybe something for us to look into in the future.
What nozzle size would you recommend?
For the printer? depends on the printer and filament you are using.
Your videos are fantastic. Basically one of the best tutorials and education on KZread.
Thanks for the feedback, it's nice to hear they're worth the effort.
is it durable against the heats ?
TC80 can be post cured to give you a service temperature of ~80°, TC160 is our high temperature version and can be post cured to give you a service temperature of ~160°C
Please comment: What if you took three long tow strands, pre-wetted them, and then either twisted or braided them before placing them predominantly in the center of your molds? Repeat this process a dozen times, potentially making thicker strands or braiding the braids to create a semi-cloth. Re-wet the material and place it in the mold. Would this result in a more structured core material that is stronger in all directions? Thoughts?
The issue with twisting strands together is that you are artificially shortening the fibres. This means that under load they can slide over each other before they become taught, this sliding and untwisting action reduces stiffness and increases deflection. With flat laid fibres, they are already at full extension and can therefore provide maximum performance with minimal loading.
@@easycompositestv You are right! I was thinking more along the lines of how a twisted rope is stronger than a bunch of individual strands. But a rope is not living in a solid environment (resin) and can flex. Back to the drawing board. Thanks!
How did you come up with 22.04g for the rear component? I got 18.16g?
Yes thanks - this typo has been corrected on our website version. Thanks for watching!
I’m confused. You made a replacement part that is weaker than the original? Apart from quality of life improvements like the cable run etc that you mentioned what’s the benefit? I’m new to your videos so forgive me if I missed something simple.
The forged parts are fractionally lighter than the originals. The process does give scope for further aerodynamic improvements as well, as the method isn't limited to 2D geometry. I think we could also get closer to the strength of the original with a bit more development of the technique and ratio of long tows to short strands.
@@easycompositestv thanks mate. I appreciate the reply.
Hi Paul. Have you got any tips on reducing bubbles in the surface details? I'm getting a fair amount all over the parts which end up as pinholes after demoulding. Another great video, cheers!
Bubbles are usually down to fibre loading and there not being enough material in the mix. Try increasing it slightly and see fi that helps with the pinhole issue. Thanks for watching!
@@easycompositestv cheers! Will give that a good
This is a really great tutorial! I can't help but wonder how viable it would be to create a forged part with chopped up prepreg. Have you ever tried doing that? The 3D printed mold probably wouldn't work, but it seems like it would eliminate a lot of the mess and hassle of getting the resin in the mold.
We haven't done it ourselves but it's certainly possible. As you say though, it does rule out the 3D printed mould.
'Always stellar instructional content. TY for sharing. :)
Does Easy Composite ship to the US?
Yes we can ship to the USA no problem.
It's incredibly satisfying to read the comments on your vids. Everyone seems to genuinely positive. Also great advertising for your products. Whenever i see carbon fiber i think of you guys now.
Thanks for the support. We do like to think we have built up a great community of enthusiasts over the years so it is nice to see.
This is a great vid! I'm definitely using this method when building suspension parts for my streamliner later this year. 😀
Very good video. A bit of a nerdy moment: could you compare if forged carbon drone arms result in less gyro noise on the drone? I wonder if chopped fibres will result in better torsional stiffness because some fibres would end up being diagonal.
Thanks for watching, Yeah I'll try to find time to blackbox the quad with both types, it would be interesting, I would expect it to perform quite well as the standard material is not great in torsion.
Another GREAT video. One detail though, for the drone arm: you've got the long tow fibers going down the middle of the part. You needed to do that because they don't flow like the chopped tow, and you used chopped tow near the surfaces of the part to get better conformation to the mold. But this is a problem. That part is stressed in cantilever. The centerline of the part sees essentially no stress at all, which means your long tow fibers are right where they do the least good. I'm not suggesting you've made a mistake. Rather, I think there's a fundamental tension here in designing forged carbon fiber parts, that all of us are going to have to deal with. I'd really like to see you address that tension in the high-quality way that you've made all these videos. Various approaches I can imagine: * In your suspension part, you've got the axis of compression across the width of the beam. This makes it practical for you to push the long tow fibers towards the areas of maximum stress. Good solution. * You might load the drone arm first with long tow fibers, then chopped tow fibers, then finish with long tow fibers. I don't know how well this will conform to the mold. I'd also like to see a discussion of where the air bubbles go. How do you avoid voids in the finished part? My guess is that you are dissolving the air into the epoxy by applying pressure. Is that true, and does it determine some minimum pressure that is needed to get a good void-free part?
Thanks for the well considered questions, you are right that loading the long tows more centrally compromises their potential but was done to aid flow into the contours, during the fibre migration they actually end up being forced to the outside more, also these arms face some of the greatest stress in frontal impact (not the direction tested) where they will be working more effectively. That said I could have done more testing and experimentation with the loading on this part. With regard to the air entrapment, the pressure is primarily present during closure, once the tools bottom out the resin flows out until near equilibrium is approached, the air tends to escape very readily during closure as it is able to flow much more quickly to the low pressure regions (atmosphere) it very much depends on the part but a very low void content is typically achieved.