How To Go From a 3D Print to Carbon Fiber Part (Tutorial)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 24 сер 2022
- Hi, In this video I explain how to go from a 3D print to a Carbon Fiber part by guiding you through all the steps of finishing the 3D print to mouldmaking ,Carbon Fiber part making and finishing of the Carbon Fiber part itself.
First step: Getting everything ready to make the mould. I've started with a 3D printed part made out of PLA. I’ve used some polyester bondo to smoothen the printed layer lines. Once sanded we can use the Pattern coat with some MEKP to create an even smoother finish. The Pattern coat is applied by brushed, left to cure for over 3 hours, sanded flat again with a coarse sanding paper, followed by a new coat of pattern primer and sanded flat again with a less coarse grid. Most of your surface should be smooth at this point, if the part is still not flat you can repeat previous process til happy. Once the preparations are done we can proceed with the release film or coat. In my case I use 5 layers of the Chemical Easy Lease agent from @Easy Composites Ltd
Second step: Making the mould at this point. I use the Uni-mould tooling system from Easy Composites here. It's a system where you have to go through 3 stages. First stage is the Tooling Gelcoat (black layer) It is mixed with some MEKP catalyst to ensure a good curing 1-2% needs to be used here and mixed with the gelcoat. After around 8 hours the gelcoat should have cured enough for the next step. After the gelcoat stage we proceed with the coupling coat. The Coupling coat will ensure a good bond between the gelcoat and tooling resin. This time we also mix it with 1-2% MEKP catalyst. To create a stronger layer of the coupling coat, some layers of 100g Chopped strands fiberglass is used and applied in small patches all over the part. The final coat is the tooling resin, the tooling resin is a bit thicker and will create the strength of your mould. The resin is being applied with 4x layers of 400g chopped strand fiberglass pieces. After this is done you are done with the mould stage and can let it cure for preferably over 24h, the longer the better.
Third step: Once the mould has fully cured, the sharp fiberglass edges are trimmed to size using an angular grinder. Make sure to wear proper personal protection with a dust mask. After that the mould can be sanded and polished if needed. Then 5 coats of Chemical Easy Lease agent are used again. Now we are ready to put the dry carbon fiber layers into the mould. I'm using a 650g 12K Twill weave Carbon Fiber here followed by a 300g biaxal, then a 650g again. Try to be careful to make sure there is no bridging (parts where the carbon fiber cloth isn't fully in contact with the mould. This would create air pockets. If needed use some fusion FX spray tack to get the layers and peelply to stick better in the mould. Never spray it on your mould as it will mostly leave markst. After the carbon lay up we proceed with the peelply and infusion mesh follow by the vacuum bag. while bagging the part some pleats are added to make sure the bag will conform nicely over the part and create an even pressure. Once full vacuum is reached (meaning we have zero leakage of pressure we can start mixing the resin. I'm using the IN2 Epoxy resin from Easy Composites. This is a resin type that is thinner than a regular laminating epoxy. This helps with the resin flowing nice and quickly through the part. After the VARTM resin infusion is done we can let the part cure.
Fourth step: After curing for 48 hours the bag is removed and the infusion mesh. The part is demoulded and can be trimmed by using a dremel and my permagrit tools to create the good geometry of the part again.
As for the special carbonfiber finish start with a sanding paper of around 150-200grit and work your way up till 1000 (ie: 150-250-400-600-800-1000) followed by some polishing.
Main materials used:
www.easycomposites.eu/uni-mou...
www.easycomposites.eu/in2-epo...
For more of my projects make sure to follow me on:
Facebook: / mat2composites
Instagram: matthieu.libeert
twitter: @matthieutje65
web: www.mat2composites.com
#Carbon #3D #epoxy - Навчання та стиль
Write your questions or desires for future tutorials down here ;) I'll answer all questions below!
i have one question why every time i watch one of your videos i learn something new?
Pretty good. Thanks I have actually learnt something. Esp. the finish section. Didn't know you go into the grain of the fiber.
Great as always.
3D printing is so useful in composites
true! love it! now have a laser cutter as wel for future tutorials ;)
@@MatthieuLibeert Wonderful
I really liked the finish, something I am definitely gonna try with different vacuum pressures to see the difference between them
It's a special finish indeed, I like it as well :D
Nicely done 😀
Thanks 😁
Thank you for the video, have you ever experienced a melting of your PLA part because of the exothermal resin curing ?
Hi, great video!
So what filament did u use to print the plug with?
to get the "metal" finish you would need a very strong vacuum, maybe using a pressed machined mold helps because if the surface fibers aren't perfectly aligned, you can easily punch through into the fibers while sanding which is what koenigsegg managed to avoid. Maybe the viscosity of the resin needs to be very low to get a thinner film between the mold and the first fiber layer. could you cheat by adding pressure on top with a flexible material in between to sreap the pressure evenly, after infusion , after clamping the intake but before clamping the outlet, I guess it would help.
Nice video.
Thank you!
helpful ! thanks!!
Glad it helped!
Nice!
Thanks!
Hey Matthieu, as usual very enjoyable to watch! The only question I have is (for part like this especially) why not just 3d print a mold, then do all the other steps and infuse the part? This would save time/money vs. laying up a fiberglass mold.
100% true! Only downside is I don't think 3d printed moulds are durable! Will test a 3d printed mould in future videos, as it's highly requested 😉
@@MatthieuLibeert You can check one of my videos. I used a 3d printed mould PETG coated and one with just release agent :) i'm new into resin works, so its not the perfect mirror finish.
@@MatthieuLibeert I understand why you'd think that!I used to think the same, but there is a way to print durable molds (2-3 perimeters with a larger nozzle, in my case a 0.8mm, plus more infill to avoid any compression during vacuum). Then I sand mine with 80 grit and coat with epoxy mixed with graphite (just something I found to work well for coating). Afterwards I just wetsand with 220, 400, and so on up to 1000, then polish real quick (basically the same process you went through for your plug/pattern). It is as durable as any epoxy/fiberglass mold is as I have infused and pulled a number of parts from mine and they still look perfect. Worst case, another wet sanding pass would refresh it back to tip-top shape! This has been my process for car parts. Nevertheless, I always look forward to your videos and value your opinion because you've been grinding for a long time way before I even figured my stuff out (still figuring it out actually...). Much respect to you.
why do Canada Geese fly south in a V formation? cuz its too far to walk ;)
Mat, I've heard a lot of dispute about infusion parts needed to be post cured, half the Internets says yes, the other half says no.
Have you experienced warping before? And do you post cure all your parts?
If possible I postcure them, so in 90% of the cases yes
You said that you used 150g of the gelcoat. How did you calculate the volume needed? Do you know how many g/cm3 or g/mm3?
600g/m2 is general rule
what about skinning 3D print? if weight is not critical, i guess it would be fast and easy, you can also print interesting pattern, which is shows up under the vacuum
Is there a limit to the size of part that can be infused with resin, or is it a matter of tuning the hardener speed for the size of part?
correct! If you use the slow hardener from easycomposites you might infuse parts larger, did parts up to 10m² in the past. Some other brands of epoxy might even have slower resins. Another solution is to mix your resins in smaller batches and fill up the infusion cup when needed
@@MatthieuLibeert also depends on the structure of it. we have been doing this, design and 3d print then make cf for years, tons of problems. sometimes we have to use clay to re construct.
You could also have several resin inlets. They make yachts with infusion they just have a resin inlet every 2 feet down the center. And infuse it from center out
True!
So that effect is basically sanding into the weave? No need to seal it with a clear coat?
Correct, you could clearcoat it if you want
@@MatthieuLibeert any downside to skipping an extra "sealing" coat? Or is it not needed at all due to the void free infusion method? (Just trying to understand as I've always been told to add an extra cost after hitting the weave, but I'd love to skip it 😅)
No not really needed as long as all the fibers are well infused with resin, and your ok with that finish
@@finfoil8544 unless the infusion resin you're using is UV resistant or the part won't see UV light (sun) then leaving the part bare is fine. Otherwise, coat it with a UV resistant clearcoat, as the resin will begin to breakdown and amber over time
Do you degass resin before infusion?
Mostly yes
Have you considered 3D printing the mold itself? That shouldn't be too hard to do in 3D modeling software.
it's on my todo list ;) should work! only thing that might cause some problems is the vacuum I guess
@@MatthieuLibeert that might be a good excuse to get a resin 3D printer!
@@MatthieuLibeert make the printed mold part hollow and fill it up with resin with some filler from the "underside" ;)
Already did that in a previous tutorial 😉 it's in my last videos making a tube 😉 '3d printed mould to make carbon fiber epoxy resin tubes'
Expanding on this, I’d love to see a 3D printed mold utilized with out-of-autoclave prepreg cured in an regular-ish oven that can run the prepreg heat schedule!
There is a cheat with film and water dipp?
Works as well but not real carbon
I watched a video of a formula 1 car chassis creation. It was carbon made and they used an autoclave. It was the reason why you cannot do such things at home, because you need very expensive autoclave with size of room. But you don't use it in your project. Does it mean that your carbon is some other lesser type of carbon not suitable for heavy duty applications? Can something like olympics grade bike or private plane be made this way?
correct! but F1 and Aerospace are very specific industries that need that extra 1% To answer your question; I do think olympic grade and private plane can be done such way, I've read boeing and airbus are switching to out of autoclave as well but not sure. But if you want to make 95% perfect parts, out of autoclave should be fine as well!
@@MatthieuLibeert Thanks for the answer.
No I am perfectly fine with less quality material and trade quality for cost and ease of manufacturing given it passes minimum requirements. Eg bike should not disassemble at 50km/h.
Also such lesser carbon still should perform better than titanium or well structured aluminium or dural.
It doesn't mean it is some lesser type of carbon. The autoclave is used to minimize faults in the resin e.g. bubbles and increase the properties by achieving better saturation of the fibers with the resin.
@@jucaesar4961 Thanks for the explanation. I thought there some different type of chemical reaction and resin type which need a temperature to cook.
Therefore I still can place carbon from the video in autoclave and increase it's quality.
@@vitalykononenko149 I am not too sure about that inference about the same resin being able to increase the properties through the autoclave. Generally, I would refer to specific datasheets in regards to which cure temperature and pressure should be used for the best properties.
I only learned about this at a rather surface level during a second-semester course in my (bachelor) study of aerospace engineering.
if this part is exposed to outdoors alot, isnt a polished finish not going to last??
He said in the video that he clear coats parts for UV protection. It will stop the resin from turning yellow, and might also prolong the lifespan of the part.
Hi.
I would like to purchase the same materials you used and make them. Where should I buy what? I live in Korea, the country of BTS. Will it be shipped?
Not sure if they ship to there, but try contacting them www.easycomposites.co.uk
You should have printed it on its side as the side layers are way better looking that the top layers, would require less bondo and post processing!
pero eso es fibra de vidrio no?
I think you may have answered a long-term question I have always had... maybe? My question is: Can you cure a two part epoxy (resin + hardener) inside of a vacuum bag? In other words... will epoxy cure in a vacuum state ( no presence of O2 or other molecules that make up *air*)? I understand temperature guidelines, just wondering about the vacuum state?
Yes epoxy is a 2k resin that will cure under vacuum
Why not just brush the resin onto the fiber before vacuum sealing.
Hello, is there a possibility of a French translation?
Will see what I can do!
@@MatthieuLibeert perfect