Laminate Sample #42: Infused Boston Materials Supercomp with Z-axis Fiber

[@drrock5356]

I worked for a startup company that made CNC Z-Axis carbon fiber preform stitching machines. Cut the dry fabric plies, load in a frame, stitch up with 3K carbon fiber tow, and out comes a sturdy preform ready for RTM molding, with enhanced with Z-Axis anti-delamination tows.

[@ExploreComposites]

That sounds interesting - could the preforms be 3D or just flat sheets?

[@norvindcosta6466]

Fascinating video. It's great that you include trial failures as well.. bit of a learning opportunity for us.

[@LexYeen]

Now _this_ is an interesting composite.

[@GrantOakes]

Reminds me of Parabeam, a 3D woven glass product. I'd love to see something like that in carbon fiber but because of the stiffness of the tows I don't think they could weave it in a sharp 90 degree angle for the Z axis.

[@ExploreComposites]

I’ve seen that Parabeam but never used it. Got to try to find some - it would make an interesting sample!

[@slimanus8m]

Thanks! It will be really cool if you made a video about comparing different release agents (semi-perm)

[@ExploreComposites]

Yes! Its on the list. Just have to round up a bunch of samples because at a few hundred bucks a gallon my appetite for experimenting is limited!

[@slimanus8m]

@@ExploreComposites Maybe try and contact them for a sponsorship ;) I do see that easy-lease is pretty cheap for the 100ml bottle

[@karolkosciuk4984]

This is so cool

[@colofduty3836]

Hey EC. If you were making composite bow limbs from wood veneer and fibreglass, what kinda material would you use?

[@ExploreComposites]

Besides wood veneer and fiberglass? Epoxy... and I'd probably try to stick to only one material running in the "long" direction. Wood with off-axis fiberglass to prevent splitting maybe... or just fiberglass.

[@colofduty3836]

@@ExploreComposites I've got some oak veneer, some fibreglass "tape" which has a close weave. I'm going to sandwich the fibreglass in-between two lengths of the veneer. The reason I asked, I'm not sure which epoxy to go by and I can't find much information. I do have some now, I went with a low viscosity epoxy resin that claims to be for fibreglass laminates.

[@TWX1138]

If you're still monitoring comments, there have been some recent security-oriented videos evaluating bags for locking-up one's stuff in situations like at the beach, where the bags have made claims of being slash-proof. These bags have basically all failed because the manufacturers did not include anything that was resistant to a hardened steel knife used to make a concerted stroke. No one included any kind of metallica fibers in their bag fabrics, so a sufficiently sharp knife had no trouble just cutting through the multilayer bags. This got me thinking about relative slash-resistance of composite/laminate panels, and if a carbon-fiber, fiberglass, or kevlar panel offers much slash resistance. This also reminded me of fine woven stainless steel fabric, which has been used for things like novelty wallets and watch bands, and if these stainless steel fabrics are suitable for inclusion into laminated panels or not. Seems like it could be an interesting avenue of experiment if such stainless steel woven fabric is readily available, to see what resins might bind it, and to what materials it might well bind with and if thermal properties will amount to much in the course of such a panel's lifetime.

[@ExploreComposites]

That is something I never considered but Kevlar or a similar material would probably work. It is very hard to cut without the right tools and while a sharp knife will do it - it is slow and messy. Ballistic fabrics are meant to absorb energy in unlaminated form and would be a likely solution here - but manufacturing low cost products with them may prove difficult!

[@TWX1138]

Is there any special handling to keep the individual fibers from embedding in your skin? When handling fiber optic cabling we have to take special care because no doctor would be able to find a 9 micron wide glass fiber.

[@ExploreComposites]

I'm not sure - none that I know of. I'm not sure how far in a very short fiber would go. With long fiber optic strands they are quite long and could stab into you very far... right? Breathing it would be bad!

[@TWX1138]

@@ExploreComposites I'm not really sure to be honest. My work with fiber optic cabling is ancillary, I mostly deal with routing and switching and deal with infrastructure as-needed. One thing about the glass, it's inert within the body as opposed to something like asbestos. It's certainly not good to breathe it in but I don't believe it's as carcinogenic as other things could be.

[@pipeno2880]

Great work. I follow your videos. Have you ever tried to laminate glass over EVA foam with epoxy? Could be possible? Thanks and greetings

[@ExploreComposites]

I don't know anything about using EVA foam as core - it is very soft and probably wouldn't work well. EVA foam glues well though so I'm pretty sure fiberglass could be laminated to one side of the foam for a hard "shell" or the foam could be bonded to existing fiberglass parts.

[@pipeno2880]

@@ExploreCompositesThank you for the response. I'll give it a try. A friend gave me a surf softboard. I peeled off a thin plastic layer that it has and i guess that is EVA what is over the eps foam. If glue well, it should work. Maybe some pinholes to bond the resin with eps. I don't know. Thanks again and sorry for my english.