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8. Gelation, curing & post curing On addition of the catalyst or hardener a resin will begin to become more viscous until it reaches a state when it is no longer a liquid and has lost its ability to flow. This is the ‘gel point’. The resin will continue to harden after it has gelled, until, at some time later, it has obtained its full hardness and properties.This reaction itself is accompanied by the generation of exothermic heat, which, in turn, speeds the reaction. The whole process is known as the ‘curing’ of the resin. The speed of cure is controlled by the amount of accelerator in a polyester or vinylester resin and by varying the type, not the quantity, of hardener in an epoxy resin. Generally polyester resins produce a more severe exotherm and a faster development of initial mechanical properties than epoxies of a similar working time. With both resin types, however, it is possible to accelerate the cure by the application of heat, so that the higher the temperature the faster the final hardening will occur. This can be most useful when the cure would otherwise take several hours or even days at room temperature. A quick rule of thumb for the accelerating effect of heat on a resin is that a 10°C increase in temperature will roughly double the reaction rate. Therefore if a resin gels in a laminate in 25 minutes at 20°C it will gel in about 12 minutes at 30°C, providing no extra exotherm occurs. Curing at elevated temperatures has the added advantage that it actually increases the end mechanical properties of the material, and many resin systems will not reach their ultimate mechanical properties unless the resin is given this ‘postcure’. The postcure involves increasing the laminate temperature after the initial room tem- perature cure, which increases the amount of cross-linking of the molecules that can take place. To some degree this postcure will occur naturally at warm room tempera- tures, but higher properties and shorter postcure times will be obtained if elevated temperatures are used. This is particularly true of the material’s softening point or Glass Transition Temperature (Tg), which, up to a point, increases with increasing postcure temperature. 9. Inspection and testing Since the raw material is effectively processed at the same time as the composite component, there are many aspects which require validation to ensure quality of finished parts. Assuming the manufacturing process, component design and material selection have been adequately and correctly specified, visual and non-destructive testing form the first stage of quality control. GTC-6-0417 - 63PDF Image | GUIDE TO COMPOSITES
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