Part Manufacture

A number of different materials and processes can be used depending on cost, production volume, and performance requirements:

• Vacuum bagged prepregs (oven cured or autoclaved) with carbon, aramid, glass or other reinforcements with high performance resin systems.

• Vacuum bagged polyester or epoxy wet layup with carbon, aramid or glass reinforcements: materials are lower in cost than prepegs, but properties are not as good.

• Open mould wet layup, usually with polyester/glass for low cost components

• Matched metal press moulded parts using prepreg epoxy/carbon materials. This produces parts with excellent surface finish (both sides) and mechanical properties.

• BIM (Bladder Inflation Moulding) uses pressurized bladders in aluminium moulds to produce extremely high quality hollow components (eg inlet manifolds) with much better internal finish than vacuum bagged parts.

• Resin Infusion using dry reinforcements (carbon etc.) and wet resins with a vacuum system to infuse the resin into the part. Produces parts with very good mechanical properties and is very suitable for large parts because of relatively low tooling costs and no need for oven or autoclave

• Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM & RTM Light) uses matched metal or composite tooling with dry fabrics and virtually any resin system to produce parts that have a finished surface on both sides and very good mechanical properties. The process is best suited to large volume production ( tooling is relatively expensive but part cost is low).