Resin infusion is a potentially much lower cost manufacturing method than the current prepreg and autoclave solution. With 11 resin infusion machines, applications range from large, high-performance structures such as aeroplane wings and wind turbine blades to bridge decks. The highest-pressure machine can inject up to 200 bar and highest temperature machine can operate 300C resins.
Moulding composites using high temperature resins and functional additives means that finished components have greater mechanical performance in harsh environments. The technology stirs, de-gasses, heats and injects a wide variety of 'difficult to process' resin systems into a variable geometry Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) tool with instrumentation of all key process parameters.
Our Large Scale Resin Infusion (LSRI) equipment is designed to carry out controlled resin infusion of very large composite structures. Dependent on resin type and configuration, we can process volumes of up to 2,000kg of resin.
Applications include:
In support of Airbus' Wing of Tomorrow programme, a collaborative team of engineers at the National Composites Centre investigate materials, manufacturing, and component sub-assembly techniques to achieve a world-first full scale 17-metre integrated wing skin infused in one step.
