Composites

This week's assignment was to design and fabricate a mold and then use it to make a fibre composite part.

I first designed a 3D model on Solid Works. Then I transfered the design to corel draw for 2D vectors that can be cut on ply woodform a nice container.

I then gathered what I needed to start the process. At the lab we had some Henkel's resin and Henkel's Hardener. We also had some Fibreglass.

Mind you, while handling fibreglass safety is priority No. 1. The material can cause skin irritation and itchiness, as well as difficulty in seeing and breathing. SO u can already guess that I came prepared :)

Gloves and a mask to ensure that I do not inhale the very thin fibreglass threads. Well, if you can have a pair of protective eye goggles ...even better.

I was set to begin. I needed to make sure that the composite does not stick on the mold once I'm done with the process. To that effect I stuck a masking tape around the mold and applied some petroleum jelly on the masking tape. This will make it easy for the composite to come off the surface of the mold easily.

The next step was to mix the resin with the hardener. I used a ratio of 2:1

After mixing thoroughly for about a minute and 30 seconds, I applied some resin on to the surface of the mold and then started to arrange nicely cut pieces of the fibreglass on to the mold. After putting on the first layer I applied some resin on it using a painting brush. Then I placed another layer on it and applied some more resin. I did this for four layers of fibreglass and as you can guess, it was messy, very wet and the smell couldn't get any better, but it was also fun.

After this it was time to create a vacuum for the composite to form. I used a static bag for this purpose. To create a vacuumin the bag, I used a handheld vacuum cleaner

That part was done, so I left it to set.
My hands were alittle itchy though. Perhaps next time I will use longer gloves for better protection against fibreglass

I checked on it again after 48hours,and this was my composite

Download files

composites.cdr
composites.SLDPRT
composites.STP