Does humidity affect resin cureing?
Yes. The higher the humidity, the longer the cure time. Doug
I’ve heard that it does, but I can’t see the reason for it affecting the curing process, which consists of crosslinking in poly resins.
More’s the point, increase temperature speeds the cure rate. Depending on where your are, humidity and temperature may be directly linked, or not.
I watch for temperature mostly, in Honolulu it’s 70’s to low/mid 80’s most of the time.
I have to confess that I know next to zilch about the chemistry of resins and crosslinking. However, I live in S. California where we are treated to humidity that can be in the 80% to 98% range, then Santa Ana comes calling and it plummets to 15% overnite.
I have glassed in a variety of temperaturs and humidity levels, and noticed one thing: The air can be on the cool side, say 60 to 65 degrees F, which usually means slower curing, but if the humidity is low, the cure times are the same as if the temp was around 75 F. So I adjust accordingly. Doug
i asked the same question recently …and i heard high humidity slows down the evaporation of styrene…so i guess that equals slows down the cure time …i guess.