Resin infusion is a popular method for creating custom composite materials, which are used throughout the power generation industry. As one of the leading methods in the composites industry, advances are being made in resin infusion constantly. Composites World has the rundown on a new advance in resin infusion.
The development CW goes over is a “tunable” polyurethane-based resin system, being engineered by Huntsman Polyurethanes. It works like this:Two-part polyurethanes (PURs) traditionally have been limited to small parts or to continuous processes, such as pultrusion, because of fast reaction time and rapid increase in viscosity after PUR’s two components are mixed. But Connolly reported that the VITROX resin combines isocyanates, polyols and a unique, proprietary catalyst system that permits processors to “dial in” a desirable gel time and viscosity profile, yielding previously unachievable processing benefits together with mechanical properties that exceed those achieved with some epoxies.
The result of Huntsman’s polyurethane innovation is that impact-resistance, high-performance parts may be able to be formed by resin transfer molding and resin infusion using these new, “tunable” polyurethanes. Hopefully, we’ll see this sort of research help coax resin infusion manufacturing to become more widespread in the power generation industry.
