Epoxy Selection for 24-26 cycle

Currently we are using West Systems 105/209 for all our layups. However I (Advait) feel that this is not the optimal epoxy for our use case. The purpose of this doc (and meeting) is to see the pros and cons of each epoxy and figure out if we are changing our system for this coming year.

Epoxy Considerations

  • Long work time (Our layups take ages and if we’re doing a wet layup, we want to have as much work time as possible so that we can finish our parts before it cures, and so that the vacuum actually does something)

  • Highest strength possible (both shear and tensile)

  • High glass transition temp

    • For our layups to have any strength we need to ensure that we are not near the glass transition temp. Composite envisions recommends having a glass transition temp of 200 deg or more for parts exposed to sun, which would be most of our car.

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Epoxy Options

Epoxy Type

FiberGlast 2000/2120

West Systems 105/209

Lam 125/237

Epoxy Type

FiberGlast 2000/2120

West Systems 105/209

Lam 125/237

What we know already

This is Electric Aero’s chosen epoxy (will update once i have reasoning)

This is our current system and we used this for our top shell layup. Gel time was long enough that we were able to pull a vacuum after a 15ish hour layup

No info currently known about this