Скачать или смотреть Carbon Fiber Rocket Tube Manufacturing (Wet Layup)

Music - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (Walter Wanderley)

Here’s a quick timelapse of one of my rocket tube’s fabrication.

A 2-part medium cure laminating epoxy was applied as a base layer on the mandrel with a layer of non-stick plastic in between. Each passing layer of carbon fiber fabric was then saturated with the epoxy. The secondary spool in which the fabric unrolls was used to ensure that the lay up was tight and that there’s no distortion throughout the length. The wet tube was then wrapped with peel ply and wetted out to absorb any excess epoxy.

A lot of initial tests were done prior to this to gain more lay-up experience, refine the process, and obtain the experimental epoxy+resin consumption ratio. I tried using a vacuum bag once, but ridges were formed due to the second spool not being there to keep things tight. It was also mind bogglingly difficult to remove the cured tube from the mandrel. At the end, this was the most consistent and there wasn’t much difference in wall thickness.