Homemade prepregs?

[mattman]

As the subject may have lead you to believe, i have been toying with the idea of making my own prepregs...is this feasable? Anyone have any experience doing this? I am hoping its as simple as resining a bunch of sheets of glass or carbon, then sandwiching them between release film and sticking them in a freezer (what temp exactly?)...any specific type of resin? Also, anyone ever use a bath/roller system to wet out fabric? I am looking at a "Shop Wringer with Rinse Tub" in Harbor Freight and wondering if i can eliminate the squegee!

Thoughts, comments?

[davide]

What is that for?
I suppose prepreg is used by industry that use a huge amount of material each day, so they save some time in the impregnation process.
I think even small ski/snowboard manufacturer do not use prepreg.

[King_of_the_Hill]

Prepregs are usaully stored at -18deg Celcius, they are used in aerospace because:
1. It saves time laminating
2. you always get the same fiber/resins content

[AUtahSkiBuilder]

I worked in a large scale fiberglass factory and we toyed with the idea but it is way to expensive unless it mass production.

[davide]

I made some prepreg this summer. I was working on a carbon fiber telemark boot, and I found out was quite difficult to impregnate the tissue on a 3D shape with the brush.
I did exactly what you said: I impregnated the carbon tissue, sandwiched between two release films, and put under vacuum for time between 30 min and to 2 hours (the resin I use gets hard in 20 hours). The resin gets sticky and a bit denser, so it is quite easy to wrap the tissue on the 3D mold.
I did not try putting the tissue in the fridge, but I think it should work: they do something similar when building RC airplanes.