BRITOV DENIS

Status:

COMPLEATED

 

Week 12: composites

First attempt

 

For this assignment, I decided to use cotton and building grid. So it will be a two component composite. Our big cutting machine is still not working, so i decided to use something simple, but usefull - a bowl.

 

So, the main components:

 

 Process is very soiled, use all possible precautions, such as gloves and mask.

First you need to wrap the object in a plastic film. To remove the extra air I wet the surface with water, which caused the adhesion of the film.

Then, step by step cover it with glue and cotton.

And then - the next layer - building grid.

The best way is to use a vacume machine, but we have not got any, so i stay my composite in this way.

But resilt was better than i expect!!! Now we use it as a bowl for wires.

This was my first introduction to composites.

As can be seen in the photographs part of building grid has moved away from the base.

This can be avoided using vacuum bags, which we decided to book, as this technology seemed attractive to us.

Second attempt

 

This time we have repaired our big milling machine, so i have a chance to create my own composite with form i want. Using Rhinoceros for Mac i created a simple model consist of 9 truncated pyramids. The Rhinoceros 5 you can easely download from the official site: http://www.rhino3d.com/

Here is the result of modeling:

Using the Artcam i calculated the trajectories for the milling machine using 5mm endmill.

I cut the mold from the foam plastic.

Next step is to create composites. I bought epoxy adhesive and use my old t-shirts.

I blended epoxy with proportion 100:12, covered my model with packaging film and start covering the first layer of cotton with epoxy.

The same was done with other layers. Then i covered all this construction with film and put into vacuum bag. Using simple vacuum cleaner i deflate air from it.

The result was better than the first one.Here it is: