I just purchased Carbon Kevlar glass from Fiberglass florida. It is a 5.5 oz glass that has red and black weave. What are the majors benefits of this glass? Is it more dent resistent or does it have more tensile strength? Is if worth adding the weight on a light EPS Blank? Thanks
Having not seen the fabric I can’t be sure, but generally these hybrids are carbon in one direction, the warp, and kevlar in the other direction, the fill, but I haven’t seen any with a combination of graphite, kevlar, and glass. At any rate depending on the direction of the weave there can be advantages in the strength of the cloth. One issue to be careful about is the issue of wetting up Kevlar. Kevlar does not like to wet up, and consequently what generally happens is that the threads tend to encapsulate the Kevlar threads rather than saturate into each of the fibers. Each of the fibers imparts different characteristics to the overall product, and used wisely, can be beneficial.
Good Luck on your project!!!
Ken
I HAVE BEEN USING THIS FABRIC FOR ABOUT TEN YEARS MAKE SURE THE CARBON AND KEVLAR ARE GOING IN BOTH DIRECTION WARP AND FILL OTHER WISE IT IS USELESS MAKE SURE YOU USE MODIFY EPOXY OR EPOXY POLYESTER WILL NOT WORK WELL AND USED A LAP EXTREME BLANK AND YOU WILL GET THE BEST BOARD YOU HAVE EVER SEEN
Richard:
What epoxy do you use?
RR, West Marine, other?
Is the hybrd cloth (Kevlar/Carbon) dent resistant?
2 weaves Carbon to 1 weave Kevlar
Making a stringerless EPS Fish and want it light and strong and mainly functional!
SD
SD
The many sites I sent over to you should help. The one from Thayercraft is my new fave, and it lists many of the cloths finishes and how they are best with epoxy, polyester or both…there is quite a difference when you start comparing not only weaves but volan to silanes… they don’t offer the hybrid carbon/kev’s though. Fiberglass Supply does…
Carbon is stiff and Kevlar is impact…I had a carbon mast snap off Kanaha and it sounded like a cannon going off!
There are different Kevlars you can use…or even combined yardage of Kevlar/Carbon. Get the best of both worlds…if you are going this route, use really lightweight cores as the reinforcing will make the board innately indestructible…just shape the air then package it. Be sure ou have some real good shears to cut your yardage.
Kevlar is a bitch to sand if you hit it…either veil with regular cloth or don’t sand past your hotcoats.
I think there is a very high degree of misuse amongst the general public and yes, even in our industry. Some reinforcements like what you are considering are and were specifically made for epoxy. Some net much better gains with post curing. Thayercraft is good for listing which reinforcing materials are for epoxy only, polyester, or for both. I found an interesting coment in their site about what they had been told about why the cost of S2 glass being higher. He said that the temperature used in the process for S2 glass was higher and this was the reason for the higer cost. Perhaps that is true…he said he had never heard of any other reasoning offered.
The cool thing about what we do is that there are many avenues to explore that can net a great product. It doesn’t just have to be about strength to weight ratios, the whole thing with flex patterns is a growth area that people are playing with different weave patterns, like biaxials, multi and uni directionals, bias, and so on.
I think a lot of it is ultimately subjective: some guys hate the stiffness of Surftech composite sandwich construction, other like it…some want more and more flex. I think for the most part the pro surfers do NOT want super stiff boards. A kook might want one for resisting dings, but a good surfer wants and demands a lively ride. Torsional flex is as much a part of this equation as anything…Greenough’s spoon wasn’t just about tail flex…far from it…think horsepower!
Additives are in the mix now too.
There is a lot to play with…above all, have fun and maintain the stoke.
Dead:
I think I’m going to use a combo of Warp Cloth and light weigth Kelvar?
Vaccuum bag and use Epoxy Resin.
I Shaped the 2.5 pound EPS FISH Saturday stringerless. It was easy once I chalked a line for reference down the center.
I have some 2.0 left over (The same you have) A second one will be made to compare.
If I make a 3rd one it will go into a Auto-Clave.
Just trying to have some fun?
SD
Have at it…as far as the carbon is stiff and kevlar for impact…I did my .5 lb. sailboard way back in '83 and recall I used some very lightweight (like 2 oz) carbon mat…because of the mat config. I never got a dent on that entire area…about 2/3rds of the deck…that was the 8’10"x21"x6" board that weighed 9.8 lbs.
I’m not sure how warp and kevlar will compliment each other as far as flex pattern…I’ve done plenty of warp and really believe in it. Biaxial is flirting with me now…but kevlar is such a different deal altogether. The stuff is so damn strong when properly applied. Spectra was another exotic that held promise that I messed with a little bit in the 80’s…there’s a thread somewhere in Sway’s mentioning Spectra (other than mine). Check around.
The only major drawback to Kevlar is that it will wick water, so if there is any dent or crack in the laminate you could wick water down the entire board. I have found that S-glass if a great strength to weight option and offers a lot of the benefits ogf carbon without the difficulties of lanminating. It is extremely tough to laminate carbon unless you ar vacuum bagging the product which will ensure a void free finish. Typically carbon can cost $35-$50 a yard (for 50" wide) and contrary to popular belief, does not withstand impacts very well. Kevlar is very impact resistant, but does not ever absorb resin, it is only encapsulated by it. I have always thought that the feel and flex that S-glass allows the board while adding strength is the best way to go. Plus, it is only about $4.00 a yard for a 4 oz. 30" size roll. I have seen JPS glass (marketed under the “Mean Streak” trade name) that has bands of S-glass in the warp direction mixed with conventiaonal E-galss yarns and I have always loved the strength it adds to the boards without breaking the bank. I guess it really depends on what type of constructio/materials et. you are comfortable working with.
Richard meant to say modified epoxy, not modify. The stuff he uses normally kicks with mekp, and is not compatible with eps. RR is the answer.
FYI, you may not have noticed the dates, these posts are mostly 4 years old. Some spammer from China dug them out of the archives and put an advertisement for counterfeit watches at the end of the thread (or some such BS product) which has since been deleted.