Infusion confusion?

Have you ever wondered how we do it? You know, how we make high-tech carbon fibre parts?

You know, only having to handle dry fabrics – never struggling to line up sticky, stubborn layers? How you squish the layers together so tightly? How you get the liquid resin in without touching it? And there’s none of the usual fibreglass smell?

Royce, one of our composites apprentices, has it nailed. We’ll let his short video show you.

Seems so simple, eh? Not really, but you develop the knack.

For the technophiles among you, we load the mould with the carbon fabric and other structural elements, then arrange the release and flow layers on top. This is all sealed with a custom-made reusable silicone bag (in this infusion video, we use a transparent vacuum bag, so you can see what’s happening). Then we apply a 99% vacuum to compress the laminate, eliminate almost all the air and draw the catalysed resin through the part. After about 6 hours initial cure, we remove the vacuum bag and other consumables. Next day after heat curing, we pop the shiny carbon part out of its mould.

In the video, you see us resin infusing a carbon fibre foredeck/dash panel. Then, we join it together with two infused carbon recess panels and two coloured fibreglass side panels. The end result is a stunning composite cuddy cabin for the award-winning Stabicraft ‘Project Carbon’ Fisher 1600 powerboat.