Does anyone have experience with peel ply? - a lot of aircraft builders use it - how come it isn’t used in surfboard building?
Cos it may leave dirts on the board surface. Second, have to pay extra cost on the vaccum pump and peelply, etc. Regards, CrabieHK
i’ve been building boats with peel ply . it’s very expensive to use.
Peel Ply is a great thing for composites work. The main fall back for surfboard manufacturers, especially the garage/backyard shapers is that one needs vacuum and heat. To properly use it you need a hot bonder unit which applies heat via heat blanket and vacuum via internal ( or external) pumps. The heat blankets required for a surfboard would cost over $1k. A hot bonder cost excess of $3K ( for a really cheap ass one). Peel ply is also very expensive compared to the wet lay up. In addition to the application, vacuum and heating of the peel ply, its has to be stored at below freezing temps and once it becomes room temp ( req’d for application) it can’t be re-frozen to use again properly. A proper thawing is also req’d for for a quality finish. One thing I’m not sure about is the temperatures at which clark foam, eps and others can withstand as most prepregs require a cure cycle between 250 f. and 350 f. It has been done, I am sure that Lap Surfboards are manufactured using prepreg materials. In small areas, prepregs would yield much stronger fin patches and such. Hope I helped answer a question. If one had the means to use prepreg it would definitely yield a much stonger board. Heat and pressure does wonders to an epoxy matrix. Question: Any one know what temps Clark Foam and EPS can withstand without damaging? -Zo
You don’t have to use prepreg with peel ply. You don’t have to use a heat blanket. And you don’t even need to use a vacuum bag with it. Peel ply is normally used in a vacuum bag system so the bag doesn’t stick to the laminate. But it also is used to create a finish on your laminate. Depending on the peel ply, you can produce a smooth or textured finish. So for surfboards, you could use a smooth peel ply and just smooth it over your laminate so after the resin has cured and you peel off your peel ply, your board would have a smoother finish than if you just squeegeed it. Of course, if you also used a vacuum bag with a bleeder, you could get your resin to glass ratio to the most optimum level, producing a lighter board. Also, peel ply doesn’t have to be expensive. The kind I use can be reused over and over. The main reason boards aren’t produced this way is because you don’t have to, and why change if it has been working all these years.
Does peel ply even work with polyester resin? I’ve read somewhere that it doesn’t. regards, Håvard
Peel ply works with any type of resin.
Clark foam starts to get soft and deform around 200deg. EPS is even lower. That is why we don’t see more industial processes applied to surfboards. Molded boards like SurfTech rely on the mold to press the lams onto the shaped blank, but then you have a one-design molded board. - PK
What the heck is Peel Ply? -Jay