Paging Fabrik8 - Japs develop X-Ray carbon fiber... poised to take over the world...
12-21-2011, 12:10 PM
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Paging Fabrik8 - Japs develop X-Ray carbon fiber... poised to take over the world...
http://www.teijin.co.jp/english/news...ebd111209.html
Teijin won out on a program initiated by the department of energy. The program (PNGV), works with companies to test and develop an effective "electron beam curing system". EBC is a carbon fiber curing system that eliminates temperature curing in an autoclave and replaces it with blasting prepreg carbon parts with x-rays. The reason this isn't old news is because a new resin had to be developed that was radio-active sensitive and didn't use a hardener as a catalyst. The resin was developed under sponsorship of the department of energy program called CRADA. The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. In short, this is huge news. Huge. In case you are wondering if RTM and Vacuum Film Transfer manufacturing methods are related to this, they are not, and will probably be immediately superseded by EBC.
Teijin won out on a program initiated by the department of energy. The program (PNGV), works with companies to test and develop an effective "electron beam curing system". EBC is a carbon fiber curing system that eliminates temperature curing in an autoclave and replaces it with blasting prepreg carbon parts with x-rays. The reason this isn't old news is because a new resin had to be developed that was radio-active sensitive and didn't use a hardener as a catalyst. The resin was developed under sponsorship of the department of energy program called CRADA. The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. In short, this is huge news. Huge. In case you are wondering if RTM and Vacuum Film Transfer manufacturing methods are related to this, they are not, and will probably be immediately superseded by EBC.
12-21-2011, 12:22 PM
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Re: Paging Fabrik8 - Japs develop X-Ray carbon fiber... poised to take over the world
http://www.teijin.co.jp/english/news...ebd111209.html
The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. I
The end result is TEJIN was able to produce carbon fiber parts in under a minute, with multiple parts being cured simultaneously due to the penetration characteristics of x-rays. I
12-21-2011, 01:48 PM
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Re: Paging Fabrik8 - Japs develop X-Ray carbon fiber... poised to take over the world
I knew Teijin was working on something for really fast cycle times, but this is really cool.
SO here's how this works: A pre-preg carbon fabric has the resin already catalyzed (both parts mixed together) and impregnated (pre-preg is short for pre-impregnated) into the fabric using a roller system. The roller system allows really precise and consistent control of the amount of resin in the fabric for excellent weight properties, and also allows the use of resins that aren't very practical to apply directly to dry fabric in the traditional methods. The downside is that once the resin is applied, the fabric needs to be frozen for storage to slow down the polymerization reaction. Then when the fabric is used, the layup is cured in an autoclave (or just a cure oven with a vacuum bag) to speed the reaction up so the resin will polymerize completely. Getting the entire composite up to the proper temperature and following the correct temperature profile (for best physical properties with the resin being used) is a time consuming process and because the mold soaks up heat, and the composite is different thicknesses in different areas usually too.
The electron beam method would get rid of this because the beam can penetrate the mold and the composite very fast and very evenly, so there aren't any problems with temperature gradients and things like that. It's actually a similar concept to UV cure resins and paints, but UV cure resins have problems with light penetration if the part is complex or too thick, or for other reasons I won't go into. UV light is another type of radiation, etc.
So basically they're accelerating the polymerization reaction using an electron beam instead of with heat or UV light.
RTM, SCRIM, resin infusion, etc., are different processes which use wet resin instead of pre-preg fabrics. The RTM, etc., cycles times can be rather fast because the resin can be injected into the mold very quickly and then cured by heating the mold, but for the most part the resins can't complete with the physical properties of the good pre-preg resins. The takeaway is that EBC is a big improvement to regular pre-preg based processes.
SO here's how this works: A pre-preg carbon fabric has the resin already catalyzed (both parts mixed together) and impregnated (pre-preg is short for pre-impregnated) into the fabric using a roller system. The roller system allows really precise and consistent control of the amount of resin in the fabric for excellent weight properties, and also allows the use of resins that aren't very practical to apply directly to dry fabric in the traditional methods. The downside is that once the resin is applied, the fabric needs to be frozen for storage to slow down the polymerization reaction. Then when the fabric is used, the layup is cured in an autoclave (or just a cure oven with a vacuum bag) to speed the reaction up so the resin will polymerize completely. Getting the entire composite up to the proper temperature and following the correct temperature profile (for best physical properties with the resin being used) is a time consuming process and because the mold soaks up heat, and the composite is different thicknesses in different areas usually too.
The electron beam method would get rid of this because the beam can penetrate the mold and the composite very fast and very evenly, so there aren't any problems with temperature gradients and things like that. It's actually a similar concept to UV cure resins and paints, but UV cure resins have problems with light penetration if the part is complex or too thick, or for other reasons I won't go into. UV light is another type of radiation, etc.
So basically they're accelerating the polymerization reaction using an electron beam instead of with heat or UV light.
RTM, SCRIM, resin infusion, etc., are different processes which use wet resin instead of pre-preg fabrics. The RTM, etc., cycles times can be rather fast because the resin can be injected into the mold very quickly and then cured by heating the mold, but for the most part the resins can't complete with the physical properties of the good pre-preg resins. The takeaway is that EBC is a big improvement to regular pre-preg based processes.
12-21-2011, 01:54 PM
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Re: Paging Fabrik8 - Japs develop X-Ray carbon fiber... poised to take over the world
I knew Teijin was working on something for really fast cycle times, but this is really cool.
SO here's how this works: A pre-preg carbon fabric has the resin already catalyzed (both parts mixed together) and impregnated (pre-preg is short for pre-impregnated) into the fabric using a roller system. The roller system allows really precise and consistent control of the amount of resin in the fabric for excellent weight properties, and also allows the use of resins that aren't very practical to apply directly to dry fabric in the traditional methods. The downside is that once the resin is applied, the fabric needs to be frozen for storage to slow down the polymerization reaction. Then when the fabric is used, the layup is cured in an autoclave (or just a cure oven with a vacuum bag) to speed the reaction up so the resin will polymerize completely. Getting the entire composite up to the proper temperature and following the correct temperature profile (for best physical properties with the resin being used) is a time consuming process and because the mold soaks up heat, and the composite is different thicknesses in different areas usually too.
The electron beam method would get rid of this because the beam can penetrate the mold and the composite very fast and very evenly, so there aren't any problems with temperature gradients and things like that. It's actually a similar concept to UV cure resins and paints, but UV cure resins have problems with light penetration if the part is complex or too thick, or for other reasons I won't go into. UV light is another type of radiation, etc.
So basically they're accelerating the polymerization reaction using an electron beam instead of with heat or UV light.
RTM, SCRIM, resin infusion, etc., are different processes which use wet resin instead of pre-preg fabrics. The RTM, etc., cycles times can be rather fast because the resin can be injected into the mold very quickly and then cured by heating the mold, but for the most part the resins can't complete with the physical properties of the good pre-preg resins. The takeaway is that EBC is a big improvement to regular pre-preg based processes.
SO here's how this works: A pre-preg carbon fabric has the resin already catalyzed (both parts mixed together) and impregnated (pre-preg is short for pre-impregnated) into the fabric using a roller system. The roller system allows really precise and consistent control of the amount of resin in the fabric for excellent weight properties, and also allows the use of resins that aren't very practical to apply directly to dry fabric in the traditional methods. The downside is that once the resin is applied, the fabric needs to be frozen for storage to slow down the polymerization reaction. Then when the fabric is used, the layup is cured in an autoclave (or just a cure oven with a vacuum bag) to speed the reaction up so the resin will polymerize completely. Getting the entire composite up to the proper temperature and following the correct temperature profile (for best physical properties with the resin being used) is a time consuming process and because the mold soaks up heat, and the composite is different thicknesses in different areas usually too.
The electron beam method would get rid of this because the beam can penetrate the mold and the composite very fast and very evenly, so there aren't any problems with temperature gradients and things like that. It's actually a similar concept to UV cure resins and paints, but UV cure resins have problems with light penetration if the part is complex or too thick, or for other reasons I won't go into. UV light is another type of radiation, etc.
So basically they're accelerating the polymerization reaction using an electron beam instead of with heat or UV light.
RTM, SCRIM, resin infusion, etc., are different processes which use wet resin instead of pre-preg fabrics. The RTM, etc., cycles times can be rather fast because the resin can be injected into the mold very quickly and then cured by heating the mold, but for the most part the resins can't complete with the physical properties of the good pre-preg resins. The takeaway is that EBC is a big improvement to regular pre-preg based processes.
Just checking.
12-21-2011, 02:13 PM
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