Our highly porous nonwovens facilitate resin flow during composite fabrication, providing enhanced resin transportation with the added benefit of surface functionality or a high quality finish.
Resin flow during infusion can be a problem, particularly with non-crimp fabrics. Our nonwovens can be used in both interlaminar and surface regions to improve resin flow in vacuum infusion techniques, removing the need to use additional flow media and ultimately lowering resin usage and scrap.
When incorporated into a composite they can deliver an increase in both the in-plane resin flow rate and the through-plane wetting of the resin. This is enabled by the material’s open pore structure; consisting of up to 95% of the veil volume. The porous architecture offers minimal resistance to the resin flow front and promotes wetting of the surrounding unidirectional or woven reinforcement fabric. To achieve these benefits the nonwoven can either be interleaved between the reinforcement layers to ensure a constant through-plane gap and improved permeability, or placed on the upper most layer of the reinforcement to promote in-plane resin flow. The two methods can also be employed simultaneously, and when used as the uppermost layer the veil provides the added benefits of an improved surface finish for secondary bonding or painting, as well as the addition of surface functionality such as EMI shielding, electrical conductivity or corrosion resistance. If thermoplastic veils are used as interleaves they too deliver additional performance enhancement in the form of an interlaminar fracture toughness improvement.
It has been demonstrated that a 34 g/m² veil improves the resin infusion rate of reinforcement fabrics, in particular UD, by up to 38%.
KEY BENEFITS:
- Reduced time for complete resin wet out of reinforcement materials
- Improved degassing of dry fabric prior to infusion
- Improved fracture toughness
- Enables control over resin flow speed in complex part
- High quality surface finish
- Imparts additional surface functionality
- 3D spacer fabric
- Minimise print through
Typical nonwoven types: Carbon, Glass, Polyester, Aramid, Thermoplastics (PPS, PEI, PEEK & PI), Nickel Coated Carbon, Copper & Nickel Coated Carbon and blends of these fibres are all available.