Notes about dummy ring from LBL

• 2 rings 3-D printed, will cost $778 printed at ProtoLabs.
• From Tom Johnson @ LBL: The material used for the carbon fibre sheets is per-preg carbon fiber. The pre-preg means that it's already been impregnated with a two part resin.  Once mixed the resin wants to catalyze and harden.
  • To keep the material from hardening we keep the resin in stasis by storing the material frozen. Even when frozen the resin wants to catalyze,  just really slowly, so this is not a permanent solution.
  • A release film is used with flat tooling: Airtech - A4000R.
  • The panels I'm sending you has this peal ply layer still attached on front and back. (so you can see what its all about) Remove them by gently pealing them off the panel.
  • When bonding to the carbon surface a very light abrading with 200 grit sandpaper or scotch brite abrasive pad is needed.
  • Before bonding: alcohol clean to remove dirt and oils,  lightly abrade surface,  alcohol clean and dry. Then bond asap, preferably the same day. The dust created from this should be mostly white(resin on the surface of carbon). If it turns black then you are getting into the carbon. Once clean only touch with gloves or oils from your hands will contaminate the surface.
  • The cut edges of the panel can leave black carbon on your gloves. A very thin coat of epoxy or varnish can be applied to the edges to seal the cut edges.
  • Cutting of these is very easy. Simply use a sharp razor blade and light pressure. It will dull the blade after almost every cut so use a lot of razor blades.
• The carbon rings are in  a cardboard box in a shelving unit in the main hall of B. 33 clean room. Bottom left of the picture below: