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Vacuum infusion equipment design and the influence of reinforcement layers addition to the

resin infusion time

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2016 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 162 012015

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Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

Vacuum infusion equipment design and the influence of

reinforcement layers addition to the resin infusion time

A H Saputra1,a *and G Setyarso2,b

1,2
Chemical Engineering Department, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia

E-mail: asasep@che.ui.ac.id, bgifa_setya@ymail.com

Abstract. The characteristic of composite material is greatly influenced by the manufacture

method of composite. The conventional method that has been used such as hand lay-up and
spray up are simple and easy to apply but the composite tend to have a void in it because of the
air trapped during the manufacture process. Vacuum infusion is one of the modern composite
manufacture process which can replace the conventional method. The problem of this method
happens when the resin infusion time become longer due to the addition of reinforcement
layers. When the resin infusion time is longer than the resin’s gel time, the resin will become
gel and not able to flow into the mold. In order to overcome this problem, a study that observe
the influence of reinforcement layers addition to the resin infusion time is needed. In this study,
vacuum infusion equipment for composite materials manufacturing process that are designed
consists of: 1x1m glass as the mold, 1L PVC tube for the resin container, 1L glass tube for the
resin trap, and ½ HP vacuum pump with 7 CFM vacuum speed. The resin that is used in this
study is unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) and the fiber used as reinforcement is fiber glass. It
is observed that the more number of reinforcement layers the longer resin infusion time will be.
The resin infusion time (in seconds) from two until six layers respectively for the area of
15x20cm are: 88, 115, 145, 174, 196; for the area of 15x25cm are: 119, 142, 168, 198, 235;
and for the area of 15x35cm are: 181, 203, 235, 263, 303. The maximum reinforcement layers
that can be accommodated for each 15x20cm, 15x25cm, and 15x35cm area are respectively 31
layers, 29 layers, and 25 layers.

1. Introduction
Composite material is a material that consist of two or more material that has a different shape and
chemical composition from its origin material [1]. Composite material is a material consists of two or
more materials that has a different characteristics physically and chemically which form a material
with new characteristic [2]. Generally, composite material consist of two main components which are
matrix and reinforcement. The manufacture process of the composite plays an important role to the
characteristic of the composite. Hand lay-up and spray-up method are the examples of composite
manufacture method that has been widely used. These two methods are simple, cheap, and doesn’t
need many equipment to be applied. On the other hand, this method has some limitation in which it
really depends on the ability of the operator. Some of the time, the quality of the repetition products
don’t have the same quality. Furthermore, this method also have a big possibility for the composite to
have a trapped air in it. This condition will lead to the decrease of quality to the composite.
Vacuum infusion is one of the modern composite manufacture method that can be the solution of
the problems that exist in hand lay-up and spray-up method. By using the vacuum infusion method, it
minimize the possibility of the air trapped in the composite. This method also allows the composite to
be made in repetition with the same quality because it depends on the equipment design, in spite of
depend on the operator’s ability. Vacuum infusion is performed by put in the reinforcement material
into the mold before the resin is infused to the mold with the help of vacuum pump. Vacuum infusion
method can distribute resin resulting well which resulting in the composite with low void content and
increase the mechanical properties of composite [3].
Beside the manufacture method, the manufacture duration is also important to be noticed because
resin has gel time that needs to be considered. The manufacture duration should not pass the gel time

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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

because when the gel time passed, the resin will change form into gel. This condition can be a problem
because the resin gel cannot be infused into the mold and will interrupt the manufacture process.
Based on this condition, a study that relates the influence of reinforcement layers on the resin infusion
time in vacuum infusion equipment is needed. The vacuum infusion equipment that is used in this
study is designed and used to observe the resin infusion time. The variations that used are the mold
area and the number of reinforcement layers. The resin used in this study is unsaturated polyester resin
and fiberglass is used as the reinforcement. In addition, the maximum number of reinforcement that
can be accommodate by the mold in the designed vacuum infusion equipment is also observed in this
study.

2. Experimental
2.1 Materials
The resin used in this study is unsaturated polyester resin with EVERPOL 324 AR-2 brand as
specified in Table 1. The fiber used as reinforcement in this study is fiberglass that is cut into layers
with area of 15x20cm, 15x25cm, and 15x35cm.

Table 1. Specification sheet EVERPOL 324 AR-2

Product Name EVERPOL 324 AR-2
Type Unsaturated Polyester Resin (Ortho Type)
SPECIFICATION
ITEMS ACTUAL STANDARD
N.V. (%) 56.5 Check
Viscosity 540 cps 400-600
Acid Value (Solution) 24.9 15-25
Color Pink Pink
Transparency Turbid Turbid
Gel Time 21’04” 20’-25’
TI 2.5 1.5-2.0

2.2 Vacuum infusion process

The principle of vacuum infusion is using the negative pressure to suck the air inside the mold and at
the same time the resin is also sucked into the mold so that the reinforcement is impregnated in the
resin. After the layer of resin and matrix are formed, the remaining resin will be sucked out of the
mold. As a result, the layer with same thickness can be obtained by using this process. The material
manufactured by using vacuum infusion process has a higher fiber to resin ratio than the hand lay-up
and spray-up method resulting in the composite material that is stronger and lighter. The flow of resin
going through the reinforcement can be determined by using Darcy Law that explain the flow of fluid
going through porous medium. Darcy Law can be seen in Eq. 1.
𝐾𝐴∆𝑃
𝑄= (1)
𝜇𝐿
Where Q = resin flow (m3/s), K = material permeability (m2), A = area where resin flows into (m2), ∆P
= pressure difference in lamination (kg/m.s2), µ = dynamic viscosity of resin (kg/m.s), and L =
distance that needed to be traveled by resin (m). Eq. 1 will be used further in this study to analyze the
effect of the reinforcement layer addition to the resin infusion time.

2.3 Vacuum infusion equipment design

The first step of the equipment design is deciding the size of desired composite material. In this
laboratory scale study, the composite is made in form of rectangle layers with the size of 15x20cm,
15x25cm, and 15x35cm. Vacuum infusion equipment designed for this study consist of: 1x1m glass as
the mold, 1L PVC tube for the resin container, 1L glass tube for the resin trap, and ½ HP vacuum
pump with 7 CFM vacuum speed. These equipment are then assembled like as seen in Figure 1.

2
Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

Figure 1. Vacuum infusion equipment

This vacuum infusion equipment is then used to discover the effect of reinforcement layer addition
to the resin infusion time. Beside the different area of mold, which are 15x20cm, 15x25cm, and
15x35cm, the number of reinforcement layer are also varied. The number of reinforcement used in this
study are 2 until 6 layers. The data obtained from this study is the resin infusion time that is measured
by using the stopwatch which is turned on when the vacuum pump starts to operate and resin inlet is
opened and is turned off when the resin wet the reinforcement completely.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 The effect of reinforcement layer addition to the resin infusion time
The infusion time data obtained from this study can be seen in Table 2. Table 2 shows that the more
number of reinforcement resulting in the longer infusion time. The more number of reinforcement
provide a longer distance for the resin to wet the reinforcement. According to Darcy Law from Eq. 1,
when the distance needed to be traveled (L) by the resin is further, the flow rate (Q) of resin becomes
lower. As a result, the time needed for resin to wet the reinforcement become longer.
From the view of fluid mechanic, as seen in Figure 2a, resin flows from resin inlet through the gap
in spiral tubing to the flow media and the lamination beneath. Resin flows horizontally to the other
lamination and resin outlet while flows vertically to the lamination under the flow media. Resin that
has reached the spiral tubing on the other side is then flows through the gaps in the spiral tubing and
flows out to the resin outlet. As seen in Figure 2b, there are a position difference between the resin in
the top side and the bottom side. Fluid or in this case resin, tend to flow through the media that has a
high permeability. As a result, on the top side which is closest to the flow media, the resin wet the
reinforcement faster than the one in the bottom side. After flowing through flow media, resin is then
flows down through the pores in reinforcement layer like fluid that flows into capillary tube. This
condition resulting in the longer infusion time with the addition of the reinforcement layer because the
distance that is needed to be traveled by the resin to wet the reinforcement become longer.

Table 2. Resin infusion time for different reinforcement area and number of reinforcement layer
Resin Infusion Time (s)
Number of
Reinforcement Reinforcement Reinforcement
Reinforcement
Area Area Area
Layer
15 x 20 cm 15 x 25 cm 15 x 35 cm
2 88 119 181
3 115 142 203
4 145 168 235
5 174 198 263
6 196 235 303

3
Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

(a)

(b)
Figure 2. The resin fluid mechanic from top view (a) and side view (b)

3.2 The calculation of maximum reinforcement layer

Beside the effect of reinforcement layer addition to the resin infusion time, the number of
reinforcement layer that can be accommodate by the mold is also needed to be observed for further use
of the vacuum infusion equipment. By using the vacuum infusion equipment that has been designed,
the infusion time data for different number of reinforcement layer and area are obtained and can be
seen in Table 2. The specification of the resin used in this study, including the gel time, can be seen in
Table 1. The calculation of maximum reinforcement layer is performed by using the linear equation of
the extrapolated data from Table 2. The extrapolated graph for the different reinforcement area can be
seen in Figure 2. By using the linear regression, the linear equation of infusion time for the
reinforcement area of 15x20cm, 15x25cm, and 15x35cm respectively are y = 27.5x + 33.6; y = 28.8x
+ 57.2; and y = 30.4x + 115.4 with y as the infusion time and x as the number of reinforcement layers.

4
Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

350

300
Resin Infusion Time (s)

250

200

150

100

50
15x20cm 15x25cm 15x35cm
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Number of Layer

Figure 3. The resin infusion time for different number of layer and different area of composite

From Table 1, it can be seen that the gel time of EVERPOL 324 AR-2 resin is 21 minutes 4
seconds so the maximum time for extrapolation is set to 15 minutes with the assumptions that the rest
6 minutes is used for mixing and degasing process of the resin before infused into the mold. The
number of maximum reinforcement layer can be obtained by substituting 15 minutes or 900 seconds
as y parameter for each linear equation that has been obtained before. It is then observed that the
maximum number of reinforcement layers that can be accommodated by the designed equipment are
31 layers for the reinforcement area of 15x20cm, 29 layers for the reinforcement area of 15x25cm, and
25 layers for the reinforcement area of 15x35cm. This condition is because for the wider
reinforcement area, the resin infusion time as seen in Table 2 is longer due to the longer distance
needed to be traveled by resin.

4. Conclusion
Vacuum infusion equipment was designed and used to discover the influence of reinforcement layers
addition to the resin infusion time. Unsaturated polyester resin was used as the reinforcement. The
designed equipment consists of: 1x1m glass as the mold, 1L PVC tube for the resin container, 1L glass
tube for the resin trap, and ½ HP vacuum pump with 7 CFM vacuum speed. The wider area and the
more number of reinforcement layers resulting in the longer infusion time. Overall, vacuum infusion
equipment that has been designed in this study can be used to make composite material with
unsaturated polyester resin as the reinforcement with the maximum reinforcement layers that can be
accommodated for each 15x20cm, 15x25cm, and 15x35cm area are respectively 31 layers, 29 layers,
and 25 layers.

5. References
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McGraw-Hill)
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[3] Callister Jr, William D 2002 Fundamentals of Material Science and Engineering : An
Introduction (New Jersey : Wiley)
[4] Thomas S, Joseph K, Malhotra S K, Goda K and Sreekala M S 2012 Advances in polymer
composites: Macro- and microcomposites – State of the art, new challenges, and opportunities
J. Polym Composite 1 1-16

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Second International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 162 (2017) 012015 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012015

[5] Wisojodharmo L A, Roseno S 2012 The use of vacuum assisted resin infusion process on the
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