CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/632301
CompositesWorld.com 41 NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W Fiber Patch Preforms 5 The fnished patch/scrim layouts for the boards were packaged for shipment to the Austrian facility that produces North's boards. 6 At the board production facility, the FPP patches/scrim were incorporated into the laminate layup kits for each of the three boards. Here, following initial layup of what would be the board top, an external polyurethane skin, a scrim without carbon patches and layers of non-crimp hybrid carbon/ glass fabrics were wet-laid. Then a wood core, wet-laid glass NCFs and the FPP patch/scrim layer (visible here) were placed. 7 Final layers that incorporated board decorations and then a fnal (bottom) layer of polyurethane plastic fnished each board layup. 8 Each completed kiteboard layup was compacted and cured in this press at 75-120°C for 10 minutes (see the results in Fig. 1, p. 42) Source (steps 1-5 photos) | Cevotec Source (steps 6-8 photos) | North Kiteboarding/Cevotec doing is making the windward side longer and the leeward side of the board shorter," he says, "which then enables you to move much faster through the jibe." (Jibe refers to a turn away from the wind to reverse direction). Hanel adds that riders want a quick response: "Tis is very much about improving control, which means load put through the footstraps must go to the tips of the board immedi- ately, and the middle of the board needs to be stifer than the tips." However, this combination of properties is difcult to achieve with conventional production technologies. A continuous, uniform layer of carbon fber, for example, gives the same stifness properties everywhere. "We can increase thickness in the middle and make the tips/tails thinner," Hanel relates, "and we've put 1- to 3-inch [25.4 mm to 76.2 mm] wide unidirectional carbon fber beams along the middle, and also laid carbon strips in a cross. But all of this is still limited. Te Cevotec technology places the fber precisely where we need it to be." Simplifying complexity through patches Cevotec excels in the manufacture of parts with complex loads and/or geometry. "We can break down this complexity into unidirectional patches that align the reinforcement precisely to the load path," explains Cevotec's head of technology Felix Michl. "Tis simplifes the layup process and also enables automated manufacturing." FPP uses an automated line to produce unidirectional carbon fber (CF) patches that are roughly 20 mm wide by 60 mm long by 0.08 mm thick (see Fig. 2, p. 43). To date it has used HTS45, IMS65 and UTS50 carbon fber from Toho Tenax Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) and T300 and T700 fbers from Toray Industries (Tokyo, Japan) in tapes from 15-40 mm width and 60-180 g/m² areal weight. For the North Kiteboarding prototypes, it chose the UTS50 because it has the necessary mechanical properties, but lower cost for the non- aerospace market.