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OPEN MOULDING

The heart of the open moulding process is saturating fibre reinforcement with resin, then using manual roll-out techniques to consolidate the laminate and remove entrapped air. A major factor in this operation is the transfer of resin from a drum or storage tank to the mould. The means used to transport the resin, in many cases, characterizes the specific process method.

Hand Lay-Up

Hand lay-up is an open moulding method suitable for making a wide variety of composites products including: boats, tanks, bathware, housings, RV/truck/auto components, architectural products, and many other products ranging from very small to very large. Production volume per mould is low; however, it is feasible to produce substantial production quantities using multiple moulds.

Process Description – Gel coat is first applied to the mould using a spray gun for a high-quality surface. When the gel coat has cured sufficiently, roll stock fibreglass reinforcement is manually placed on the mould. The laminating resin is applied by pouring, brushing, spraying, or using a paint roller. FRP rollers, paint rollers, or squeegees are used to consolidate the laminate, thoroughly wetting the reinforcement, and removing entrapped air. Subsequent layers of fibreglass reinforcement are added to build laminate thickness. Low density core materials, such as end-grain balsa, foam, and honeycomb, are commonly used to stiffen the laminate to produce sandwich construction.

Moulds – Simple, single-cavity moulds of fibreglass composites construction are generally used. Moulds can range from very small to very large and are low cost in the spectrum of composites moulds.