Carbon fibre mono

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Mike
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Tue May 29, 2018 5:47 pm

Hi, Any one have knowledge with carbon fibre ? I am looking to build a small mono to build a formula student car at home. 
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parthunter_harrison
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Thu May 31, 2018 6:55 pm

Mike wrote:
Tue May 29, 2018 5:47 pm
Hi, Any one have knowledge with carbon fibre ? I am looking to build a small mono to build a formula student car at home. 

How are you going to do it at home without an Autoclave?
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Carbon_Man_FM
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Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:30 pm

Given that you're making it at home for personal use there's no governing safety requirements makes it a lot easier to make.
Don't need an autoclave, resin infusion of flat panels no worries, can use foam core to increase you're panel stiffness with no need for complex honeycomb curing.
Can do a mono structure with a mold or go with a simpler cut and fold method. cut and fold is more accessible to everyday people and requires less skill. Run UD E-glass with CF spread tow on exterior plies to compliment the ply stiffness through the laminate, end grain balsa wood is ideal for hardpoints and is pretty cheap. 
All depends on what specs you want it to meet  
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Mike
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Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:53 pm

@Carbon_Man_FM 
Carbon_Man_FM wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:30 pm
Don't need an autoclave,

Mate, you can start your own post in the How to Guide just on carbon ! that sounds good with no autoclave needed ! 
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parthunter_harrison
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Tue Jun 05, 2018 1:45 am

Carbon_Man_FM wrote:
Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:30 pm
Given that you're making it at home for personal use there's no governing safety requirements makes it a lot easier to make.
Don't need an autoclave, resin infusion of flat panels no worries, can use foam core to increase you're panel stiffness with no need for complex honeycomb curing.
Can do a mono structure with a mold or go with a simpler cut and fold method. cut and fold is more accessible to everyday people and requires less skill. Run UD E-glass with CF spread tow on exterior plies to compliment the ply stiffness through the laminate, end grain balsa wood is ideal for hardpoints and is pretty cheap. 
All depends on what specs you want it to meet

Wow you really know your stuff! :shock:
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thespicehammer
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Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:17 pm

I believe as an engineer you need to assess why you are going down a particular route, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of each particular option. 

F**k me though disregarding safety is extremely poor engineering at best. Without extensive material testing or knowledge its impossible to ascertain whether a CF mono would meet the equivalence of a steel spaceframe and it is not easy to calculate the costs associated with materials testing at the level that would be satisfactory to run at any sanctioned event. What I am getting at is if you're building it at home your budget is not going to be large.

Couple of quick things;

Resin infusion techniques require a very advanced knowledge of resin flow, and you can simulate this if you have the resources but people usually use olive oil as a test "dry" test method due to their viscosities being similar before using resin. This costs a lot of $$$ even if cheap fibres are used. Also you cannot substitute CF for glass fibers in this process.

Cut and fold is cool, but you need a router to get some dimensional accuracy and you will need a jig to bond it all together. May as well buy a mig welder and learn to weld as its a similar process to jig a spaceframe... And then you can weld up some clevises and wishbones which is necessary to build a car haha

Lastly, composite materials are not cheap, the one thing that @Carbon_Man_FM did not comment on is how the hell you would bond a sandwich panel structure together cheaply and consistently with NDT methods.

A lot of factors here is all I'm saying


 
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Mike
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Sun Jun 17, 2018 1:08 am

@thespicehammer I guess I have to start with something small first then. I will look at fibre glass more, like fibre glass panels for cars. @Carbon_Man_FM hopefully give me a hand once I head down to Melbourne 
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