I'm wondering if anyone here has ever made any composite tubing... I've got a couple of people looking for c/f intakes & charge piping but I'm not sure how to go about it. What's the easiest way to do this? Obviously, I use a regular intake or whatever to do the mold but obviously I can't really slip it out after it's set up. Is there an epoxy or something that I would use to join 2 halves together if it's cut along the length? Just trying to figure out if anyone's done this and how you went about it.

 

This images on this link may be of some help. I have no experience personally with fiberglass or c/f but I'm sure others could chime in.

http://www.aerocompracing.com/....html

 

I have made CF charge piping using the 2 part method, Although this is not really adequate for a turbo car, with the pressure, but if you just want it for an intake, you take your plug, make 2 molds then bond them back together using apoxy resign. I am currently working on 1 piece CF charge piping and should be ready to the public in the early summer. As far as making a one piece cyndrical part it is extremely difficult, and requires alot of R&D.

Try going to http://fiberglass.com/ they have a forum that can answer most of your questions, inaddtion have very strong bonding resign to put the 2 parts toegther.

 

we use a mandrel and run the tow of fiber through a resin pot and wrap it around the mandrel at a specific # of turns per second. There is a method of of analyzing these sort of things via "knitting analysis" which basically allows you to determine the proper orientation of the fibers in order to contain the pressure inside the tube.

 

When I was on the VT FSAE team we had a guy named Justin Willess who was awesome with fiberglass and carbor fibre. He made an intake for the car by shaping and gluing many pieces of styrfoam insulation together to make the mold, then covered it with about 5 layers of carbon fibre, then when it had set he poured acetone in to melt out all of the foam.
For the flanges he bonded aluminum flanges to the fibre body with fibreglass resin. We never used the intake because there was really no airflow analysis done on it, he just did it to see if it could be done.
At any rate- just remember to make the mold on whichever side of the part that is supposed to be smooth (an intake uses a male mold on the inside of the part, so the inside is smooth, where a car body uses a female "cavity" type mold so the outside of the part is smooth)
Also, if you aren't already doing it, use a vacuum bag to keep the fibre pressed tightly against the mold. He always made the bags out of 6mil construction plastic and duct tape, then put the vacuum pump on the bag for about 12 hrs until the resin had cured. A Shop-Vac works for about 4 hours, then it overheats and melts the motor housing. I recommend using a "real" vacuum pump with heat sinks.
Hope this helps a little.

 

http://www.acrtucson.com/products/Aquacore/

I'm not sure how cost-effective this stuff its at $25/gallon, but someone mentioned it once before for making carbon fiber tubing. Once the carbon fiber is molded around it, the Aquacore rinses out with water.

I thought of doing this in the past, and I'm still considering the idea. I planned on making female molds to get the Aquacore (or even a similar foam material that can be injected) into the shape of the inside of the intake piping. Then use those as the male molds to wrap the carbon fiber around. I wanted to use V-band clamps, but didn't see a really easy way to go about doing it.

 

I would use that style core over the normal type people use that they have to eat out with acetone.

Acetone will eat the matrix and can never quite get all the foam.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by entr0py &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> http://www.acrtucson.com/products/Aquacore/

I'm not sure how cost-effective this stuff its at $25/gallon, but someone mentioned it once before for making carbon fiber tubing. Once the carbon fiber is molded around it, the Aquacore rinses out with water.

I thought of doing this in the past, and I'm still considering the idea. I planned on making female molds to get the Aquacore (or even a similar foam material that can be injected) into the shape of the inside of the intake piping. Then use those as the male molds to wrap the carbon fiber around. I wanted to use V-band clamps, but didn't see a really easy way to go about doing it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Brandon Clifton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">...A Shop-Vac works for about 4 hours, then it overheats and melts the motor housing. ....</TD></TR></TABLE>

Had to laugh when I read that... I can guess how you know this...