carbon man

Thanks.

~ian.

carbon man

The issue with making upper intake manifolds for turbo engines is the strength required around the throttle body, injectors and sensors. The heat changes make it very hard to bond Aluminium to carbon because of the expansion changes. This is also a problem with gasket surfaces. I do make intake trumpets for some engines that have injector mounts as part of the carbon trumpet but these are not holding presure. A UIM could be made but the cost verse the gain may not be worth the effort.'

~ian.

sonix7

the more and more I see, I just keep getting more impressed. Ian, so you use Vinyl Ester resin, It still comes out that clear or is there an additive. I am not familiar with Vinyl Ester resin, I have always used epoxy. I have read that it does have a higher temperature threshold and does not soften as easy. What can you tell me about that, Also shrinkage was worse with epoxy? very interesting.

carbon man

the process we use for most jobs has a clear tooling Vinyl Ester resin gelcoat, we spray this gelcoat on and we put it on as thin as we can (less than 0.1mm) this gives us an out skin that can be polished if there is any imperfections in the mould. This also seals the outer of the carbon job making it easyer to paint when required. We then laminate our carbon in either wet lay up then vacuum bag or infussion. The infusion uses more material (resin and flow meadiums) and usually take a little longer but it usually produces better parts. Lots of parts we make come back for repairs after being crashed (motorcycle parts) and we can re-bond the the vinyl ester with only a light sanding. The patch work on repairs can be done and some times the customer can't fine where the part was broken. The vinyl ester MUST be post cured to get strenght. Poly ester resing do not need post cure. Most epoxys do require post cure to gain strenght. The vinyl ester resins we use only have a short working time, our hand laminating resin 20 minutes and the infusin resin 12 minutes.
As for the shrinkage, the higher tempreture exotherm of the resin the more shrinkage and the higher the post cure tempreture the more shrinkage. In my infusion I obtain about 30degC exotherm on the job (in thin laminate) then I post cure to 50degC and I get a pot tempreture of 60degC during the infusion. The resin I use has been developed by a local resin company to suit my application. I run training seminars in one of my factories for the staff of that resin company on infusion and vacuum baging. If your epoxy resin works well for you then keep using it.

~ian.

dclin

iTrader: (4)

Ian, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to share your experience and knowledge with us. It's refreshing to read some really good info.

carbon man

thanks.

~ian.

RICE RACING

Second his comments, although I have no idea about half of whats being discussed its great that your into sharing your info and telling us all what you do and have done.

I feel pretty lucky having a genuine SP RX7 with all of your Carbon bits on it

P.S. Can I borrow your SP logo/avatar thing since I qualify to display one being an owner?

Oh also, how long will my carbon fibre fuel tank last Ian, do they have a certain life????

carbon man

Thanks, the SP logo/avatar is just a photo from the poster Mazda produced at the time (yes you can use it)

There has been no life span estimates, we tested the resin iwith lots of fuels and addatives and with extream tempreture changes with no measurable change. Mazda Australia had asked for a minimum seven year life and we have exeded that without any problems. I have had a look in side a couple of tanks in the last few years with no evidence of any problem. I am interested if you do ever have a problem (thats how I get to learn how to make things better).

~ian.

sonix7

yes. Ian your a wealth of knowledge. Wow 12 mins pot life is fast. No error time there, huh? I am really glad I came across this thread, one of the best I have seen.

carbon man

Thanks, That is the pot life in the infusion resin, so I must get the resin through the hole job in less than that time. I have infused boats and it is realy impressine to watch the resin flow over large jobs.

~ian.

bigmack000

so in that pics are the top hoses feeding in resin ? and then the vacuum end is out of the pic to the right ?

carbon man

Yes, these photos are on one of my older tables, these tables have 2 sheets of silicone and the job fits between them. The new tables I use the inlet line comes up through the bottom sheet of silicone and the vacuum out lets are out of the top sheet.

~ian.

bigmack000

so do you have to stop the resin from getting into the vacuum hoses or does that not matter?

also if you dont mind me asking did you jsut self learn all this or did you take a certain thing in school ? or jsut studie off of soem oen liek your slef before and he passed the torch on.
thanks
Joel

FDNewbie

iTrader: (10)

What he said. I'm just nodding and smiling lol, but like I said earlier in the thread... carbon man is THE man. This is where it's at folks

I hate you LOL. Super jealous...

sonix7

If you don't mind me asking who makes those tables for you, Ian? are they custom or can I purchase a table like this? I assume the silicone zipper is on one end and you can put the piece inside through there. Is the silicone thick? does in conform well under vacuum? I also assume you can utilize this table for vacuum bagging also? I am just building my biz here in the states and I would love to take it to this level. If your going to do something you might as well swing for the fences and do it the best. I would love to have a set-up half as nice as this. Beats building bags everytime I do a part. you can reuse these silicone tables right? That is awesome. I would love to see the infusion in person. I bet that is neat to see. What a clean perfect enviroment you work in. Like I said before, I long to be the USA Carbon Man. any help is always appreciated Ian.

sonix7

So I am looking at this again and I am wondering is that a vacuum pump underneath? How exactly does this table work?

94RHDFD

iTrader: (3)

Ian do you do Dry Carbon pieces

carbon man

the silicone comes from the States. Mosites Rubber Company at Fort Worth, Texas.
The table I designed and I will be selling the Aluminium extrusion to Mosite for them to manufacture the tables for the US market. I have only made 1 small table for Mosite so far but they have ordered a complete larger table for display purposes as well as full lengths of the extrusion to start making tables. There is 2 companies in Australia distributing my tables at the moment.

~ian.

sonix7

very interesting? you are a man of many trades! is this using a form of Closed Cavity Bag Molding (CCBM). I was reading about it and it sounds very similar? So can you lead me to a place here I can check on getting one of those bad boys? I am extremely motivated to move into this direction. Like I said right now I am doing laminates using existing parts and I use a wet lay-up technique and then I apply the vacuum bagging. I love the way it works, but could easily move to VIP. I understand fully how it works, I would be curious to learn all about the measurement and technical aspect of the process. Thanx Ian.

carbon man

The table works with a top sheet of silicone that seals around the edge by a "zipper seal" and there is silicone fittings for inlets and out lets. in the photos in the middle on the left hanging below I have a cone that I put the resin in and on the right I have 3 vacuum out lets and on mine I use fuel filters on each vacuum before I go to the catch pot then the pump.

carbon man

we use a dry carbon fibre cloth then we either wet lay it into place and vacuum bag it or we infuse the resin.

~ian.

sonix7

Ian, what do you know about their silicone vacuum blanket? is that similar to what you used to make the table? Also did you say you could use the table for vac bagging only or does it have to be used for VIP? I have Mosites website, do you think it would be worth my time to check with them about the table? Thanx again.

sonix7

that zipper seal is the coolest thing I have seen. wow that is awesome. kudos to you sir for inventing that! What is the bottom layer? silicone also? I love it.

carbon man

depending on who is selling the equipment to what they call their process. In most closed cavity or light resin transfer methods usually use presure on the resin to pump the resin into the job. The process I use and we call it infusion we use vacuum only to move the resin in. The lower below the job the higher the vacuum is requred to lift the resin. If the resin pot is higher than the job the resin floods the job quickly and to keep a low resin to cloth ratio it is better to have the pot below the job.

~ian.

carbon man

I did not invent the zipper seal, that is a Mosite Product. Mosite produced that grey seal and a wider one to fit to it which works very well on a single sided mould when the mould has a rebate on the flange to fit the silicone seal to. I designed the Aluminium box section that fits to the silicone zipper. The lower sheet of silicone is glued to the aluminium frame.

~ian