Carbon Fibre unidirectional cloth

[fishermantwo]

I have plenty of experience with sheathing with epoxy and cloth and heaps of general laminating with fibreglass resin and csm, cloth etc. I bought some carbon fibre unidirectional cloth and intend to do some sheathing with it. Its covered with a thin layer of what appears to be plastic on both sides. I have tried a few small sample pieces with the normal epoxy method and this thin film of plastic seems to get eaten away with the application of the resin. I will test these samples to destruction shortly to see how this process worked. There does not seem to be much info about using this product except for mass production methods.
Any experiences out there?

 

[William_H]

I have not heard of the plastic film however they need something to hold the cloth together and something similar is done with CSM. I suggest you contact the supplier for confirmation that the epoxy will dissolve it easily. That could be difficult if you wanted to use other resins like polyester or vinylester.
On reading your post again obviously for you to buy unidirectional you want stiffness in one direction. anyway...rattling on ... as I do...

it is some years since I handled carbon and then it was held together with and had a strand of yellow kevlar.

I would suggest that carbon will be very difficult to sheath anything with if it has tight curves in the shape. It would be ok it you are vaccuum bagging the layup of course.
For plain lay up Kevlar is really flexible and would be a lot easier to sheath with. And for a boat hull would be vastly tougher. ie not stiff but very resistant to cutting damage. If you need strength as in stiffness carbon is the go of course. (you probably know all this)

I was involved (slightly) in the manufacture of a little aeroplane made almost entirely of carbon fibre with a layer of kevlar on the external skins for erosion resistance. It was made of vinylester resin which was room temperature hardened under vacuum then heat treated for extra strength after removal from the mold. The product was amazing for strength. good luck olewill

 

[fishermantwo]

Olewill,

The sample pieces I tried last night on strips of cedar worked exceptionally well. No sign of the plastic. I tried laying a piece onto wet resin and then soaking through from the top. Another piece was just the carbon laying on a dry piece of cedar and I wet it through. In both cases the carbon wet out well. When I tried to tear it off this morning it only came away with great effort and brought all the fibre with it and a layer of cedar.
I tried to pull this layer of plastic off before I started and it didn't want to. Its only thin like cling wrap.
I will be laying this stuff on a carbon Finn mast with the fibres parallel to the mast, I have converted a round mast to a wing mast.