I have taken this assignment Composites, to go testing a possible molding technique for my final project. Because this technique would allow me to reinforce the primary material that would be using for my helmet.

- Designing the mold with Rhinoceros.

I used Rhinoceros to design the panels molds for my helmet, I departed from the model that had developed earlier.

Later, I exported models with the STL extension to milling them in the ShopBot.

- Milling the molds with the ShopBot.

I used the 3D Partworks of ShopBot to program the machining of my molds. As the material for the mold I used machinable foam.

Finally I could have all my molds ready for composites.

- Making the composite material.

To prepare the composite I used the 1206 resin and its respective catalyst and I have added to the resin colorants for color.

I used three types of fabrics:

- Sintetic jute fabric.

- Natural jute fabric.

- Cotton Fabric.

After depositing the jute in the mold with resin, let it dry for about 3 hours later to remove the mold.

The presses are very useful to apply pressure to the molds and to obtain a good finish on the molded part.

Once the resin has cured, I could take the already finished part from the mold to obtain a fairly rigid and resistant part.

Once I demolded the piece, I needed to remove the surplus with the jig saw table to get a neater finish and leave the piece with the right dimensions.

- Final results.

Finally I could get the panels that were part of my helmet for the final project, they proved to be quite resilient and yet flexible, qualities that favor my project for good impact resistance.

You can download the heavy files (more than 1MB) here from DROPBOX.