Description
Natural flax from Bcomp.
This material is 100% natural and excellent for all products. The stiffness is higher then glass fabric, but lower then carbon.
Another great property is that the material works well as a dampener. This means you can use the Biaxial and UD flax together or you can combine them with glass or carbon.
price pr meter.
Properties: 300 gsm, UD fabric for optimum stress transfer and damping. Composite properties: Tensile Modulus 32 GPa, Tensile Strength 383 MPa
http://bcomp.ch/files/e_tds_ud_5009_5025.pdf
Note: Flax fiber swells slightly and thus absorbs more resin. A good idea is to mix about 50% more then with glass. So if for glass you use 45-50% of fabric weight, for flax use about 65-75% of fabric weight. It also can catch some humidity, so its good idea to dry it a bit before layup. For pneumatic presses with 3 – 6 bar, extra resin is pushed out again so it will be ok. In the case of vacuum presses, please be careful how much resin you apply.
Instructions:
The flax fiber absorbs more resin. Mix more resin than for glass fabric!
Furthermore, the flax, being a natural materials, will hold moisture. This can make your product less quality than possible. It is recommended to keep it under vacuum for few hours just before layup to draw out moisture, or in an oven with medium heat, so the moisture goes out.
Pneumatic presses with ~5 bar is recommended to make good laminate with minimum excess resin.
Vacuum press: follow this resin quantity recommendations: resin / (resin + fabric) = 60%
Spread the resin well with a roll on a flat surface or pour the epoxy on to the fabric and then make a roll out of it. Then let it soak for some minutes. Much easier than try to smear it out.
Tip: Use masking tape when cutting it for better result!
