Week 14 – Composites

This week assignment at Kuwait Fab Lab is to make an object using a composite layup. The object  need to be designed before anything also we need to use some sort of digital fabrication method to make the form around which the fabric/resin would be formed.

I have a large amount of race numbers, so I think and decide that is a useful way to recycle this material as a fabric component for my composite.

First step I have to check and test the vacuum bagging system, to know how the composite worked. I made a small box out of card board, then covered it by a tape. Next I put mold and release on the tape to get the composite out of the mold. Then I applied epoxy after I make three layers of the strips over the box and put more epoxy on the top. Next I put the box in the vacuum bag and then breather cloth over. These two layers make the vacuum to compress the design and make the excess epoxy to flow out of the object and get soaked up in the breather cloth.

After closing up the vacuum bag, we switched on on the vacuum pump, for founding and sealing any leaks, then waited for 2 hours. I cut the design by using laser cutter out of card board, then covered them in epoxy and race numbers. I put the switch plate in a vacuum bag and let that sit for a few hours and here the final result: