JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #76 - October/November 2012 - 82

out-of-autoclave
More information
GMS Composites is located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, where they have their main offices, production plant, R&D, and warehousing and distribution operations. The company has been manufacturing epoxy prepregs for over 12 years and now has an established range of over 10 different prepregs resins systems covering a wide range of industries including aerospace, motorsport, marine, sporting and leisure goods, ballistics and tooling. GMS Composites is part of GMS Industrial Pty. Ltd., whose origins in insulation materials date back more than 70 years, but today is a modern epoxy prepreg composites producer focused on supplying the rapidly expanding high-performance fibre-reinforced composites markets in Australia and Asia Pacific. GMS Composites also offers CNC machining services, plus distributes a number of insulation products and composite-related consumables, reinforcement materials, resins, cores and mould releases from leading global suppliers.

Fig. 1: The carbon fibre epoxy composite monocoque cockpit chassis was moulded out-of-autoclave under vacuum from GMS EP270 epoxy prepreg at only 70°C

formance out-of-autoclave epoxy resin prepreg designed for low-temperature moulding under a vacuum at as low as only 70°C, using glass fibre tooling. GMS Composites has the manufacturing flexibility to supply even small volumes of the prepreg system in a choice of carbon fibre, aramid or glass fibre reinforcements. In addition to moulded FRP parts, GMS EP270 can also be used in the construction of composite sandwich structures as well as for tooling applications.

production efficiency and flexibility, many leading OEM and tier 1 manufacturing companies in the aerospace industry have now approved and specified a number of primary and secondary structural composite parts manufactured from out-of-autoclave composite prepreg materials. Out-of-autoclave prepregs have the added benefit of simpler and significantly lower tooling costs. While exact figures are not given out by Boeing Aerostructures, out-of-autoclave composite part manufacturing costs are estimated to be a factor of four times lower, with tooling costs typically reduced by over 50%. n
More information: www.gmsindustrial.com.au www.conceptfr1.com

they were looking for a cost-efficient low-temperature tooling and production process, and for a material which they could obtain in small volumes. Secondly, they needed a material which, once post-cured, would provide the dynamic strength and stiffness properties required in the monocoque cockpit chassis for a sports car powered by a Holden 6.0 litre V8 with a Ferrari 355 transmission. GMS EP270 with a carbon fibre fabric fitted the bill perfectly, being a high-per-

Production expertise
Having completed the design and material specification phase and built the mould tooling, the FR-1 project team then used the production expertise of Boeing Aerostructures in Port Melbourne to assist with layup, moulding and to fully cure the carbon fibre prepreg, as well as bonding the chassis using an aerospace-grade high-performance Araldite® structural adhesive. Jason Bonar, who has been with Boeing for over 18 years, worked with the Autohorizon team on the moulding and layup of the chassis, which included eight 16-hour cure phases and a final postcure, all done out of autoclave under vacuum at 70°C. During production, the GMS EP270 prepreg offered the benefit of being very easy to work with, conforming accurately to the tight and detailed tool. The finish and integrity of the final product was outstanding. For some years now, in order to drive down capital and operating costs, as well as to gain greater

Fig. 3: FR-1 sports car finished cockpit with a carbon fibre composite monocoque chassis

Fig. 2: Demoulding the epoxy/carbon composite monocoque cockpit chassis

Fig. 4: Race track testing the finished FR-1 roadster sports car

82 jec composites magazine / No76 October - November 2012

http://www.gmsindustrial.com.au http://www.conceptfr1.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #76 - October/November 2012

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