The 3D printing of large scale molds for vacuum injection has many potential advantages when compared to CNC milling or injection molding. There is a lot of research and development taking place in the area of 3D printing with thermoplastics worldwide. It can be cheaper, faster and more environmentally friendly than the conventional production methods....
Composite production relies heavily on the use of molds in order to produce (small) series and intricate shapes. Most of these molds are either made of the same materials as the product itself, or out of metals such as aluminum or steel. While these molds are durable in the sense that they can be used...
Work package 1 of the First time Right project focusses on the ‘state of the art’ of vacuum injection production process within the consortium companies. All companies in the consortium are involved in vacuum injection in some way. Some use it to produce a substantial part of their products. The polyester and glass fiber combination...
Developing a smart mould to improve the vacuum infusion process This research is carried out by Marco Withag, the goal of the research is to investigate if the vacuum infusion process can be improved by actively controlling the resin front flow using a closed loop control system, without the need of human labour involved. This...
Developing an automated demoulding method using sonic actuators. This research is carried out by Anouar Elsayed with the aim to investigate, develop and validate a method for automatically demoulding a composite part after vacuum infusion by utilising sonic elements. The composites industry has shown a significant growth over the last decade, there is constantly more demand...
To achieve the first-time-right dream, smarter and better solutions are always being explored to improve many of the methods used to create composite products. One of the main ideas of our first-time-right project in the vacuum infusion process is to create an intelligent mould that is capable to control the resin flow. The focus will be...
Simulation driven infusion prediction system using augmented reality. The Smart Monitoring research (“Compo ARt”) is carried out by Jonas S.I. Rieder, combining the newest visualisation innovations with up-to-date composites manufacturing. The aim of “Compo ARt” is overlaying a predicted resin flow on top of the mould, enabling a sneak-peak in the future of the process....
This research project is done by Denzel Vonk and will focus on the making of 3d printed models for composite mold production. The goal is to reliably print 3d models that are dimension accurate and capable of withstanding the making of the mold. In this project I will also be looking at the way...
How can 3D printing technology be fully applied in making moulds for the vacuum infusion process? Assume there is a problem which every body is talking about. Let’s say you have a concept idea on how to solve the problem. But the traditional subtractive method of manufacturing is expensive an time consuming to implement your...
