Okay. I was watching How It's Made on the Discovery Channel, and they were making a carbon fiber sailboat mast. They were using a material that I would like to try but I haven't been able to find it on the web.

Basically, it is a CF weave, that has a sticky adhesive on the back, with peel-away paper, and it came on a roll. They rolled this CF around a mandrel, tightly spun some high-temp plastic around it, and put it in a kiln. When it came out of the kiln, it was perfectly layed-up CF.

Does anyone know what this material is called and where I can get it?

 

http://www.aircraftspruce.com

 

Sounds like Pre Preg Carbon Fiber, haven't found a place in the states that manufactures it yet...I haven't really looked very hard either...

 

Prepreg. Thank you, I found it now that I know what it's called.

And now I know why not a lot of people use it. It is a bit expensive, and it has a rediculously short shelf life. But I still might try to get some. Laminating parts would be super easy so long as said part could survive 250 degrees.

If you were wondering, though, this place in CT has the stuff:

http://www.prepregs.com/index.html


Modified by beepy at 1:17 AM 9/3/2007

 

Thanks, ill save the link for future products

 

We have about 250lbs of expired prepreg sitting in a freezer. We give it away for student projects (and personal ones). I wouldn't use it for anything commercial because there would be liability on your end if it were to fail and cause injury, but if you are interested in getting some to play with PM me.

 

Expired prepreg is still usable?

I would like to take you up on your offer.. If only I wasn't in the process of moving. But if expired prepreg still has good laminating properties I don't see why it couldn't be used for simple CF overlay (aesthetic only) work on metal.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beepy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Expired prepreg is still usable?

I would like to take you up on your offer.. If only I wasn't in the process of moving. But if expired prepreg still has good laminating properties I don't see why it couldn't be used for simple CF overlay (aesthetic only) work on metal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Prepreg can last a long time if frozen and still retain its adhesive properties. The expiration date is just a way to release the manufacterur of liability in the off chance that a company uses their expired product on a part and/or good that fails and causes injury.

If you have any aerospace industry in your area, you can probably find someone to donate their old prepreg, we stuffed our freezer with this last donation, and they still had over 500 more lbs they had to throw away.

 

where are you at up in WA.. Im interested in you have some extra that i could play around with.. thanks let me know..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gotnos2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">where are you at up in WA.. Im interested in you have some extra that i could play around with.. thanks let me know..</TD></TR></TABLE>

PM me for details.

 

hahah, same here, we have a freezer also of prepreg, dating back from may of 96.. anyhow, its still works for pratice layup or just testing out new techniques of post curing and baking or even different techniques for autoclave