Composites

Technical Technical Discussion
1

I’ve posted this question on the technical forum (the official one) and it seems like they are so back-logged that the answer may not come soon enough (I want to start layup this weekend). So perhaps someone with prior years experience (we are a new team) may give an opinion:

The rules state that fiberglass may not exceed 1/8" thickness. My question is on sandwich structure, i.e. if I make a 1 1/4" sandwich structure of 1" foam with two 1/8" thick fiberglass face sheets, would that be allowed?

Also, if I were to have two discreet 1/8" laminates, and joined them in a lapjoint, such that the overlap was 1/4" thick (plus bondline), would that be allowed?

I guess my core question (no pun intended) is whether the 1/8" refers to max thickness of an independently cured laminate, or to the whole structure?

Opinions would be appreciated, as I know that what is said here can’t be considered official.

Thanks!!
Simon G.
Sikorsky Aircraft / Cheshire High
Team 999

2

The rule in prior years was that the raw fiberglass mat was not allowed to be over 1/8 inch thick. What you built with that mat was up to you. If you layered up 8 layers you could make something an inch thick, for example.

In past years, there was a limit to the area of the mat so the 1/8 inch limit effectively limited the volume of fiberglass used. With unlimited amounts of 1/8 mat, robots are really only limited by the weight of the machine.

One thing we found in past years is that fiberglass SEEMS light but it is difficult to keep it light when you actually use it, between the resin and multiple layers, things get pretty heavy pretty fast.

Good luck.

Joe J.

3

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