Development of Resin Infusion Process for Ultralight Large Composite Structures

Resin Infusion process is an affordable process for developing composite structures but resin impregnate is made difficult by its large size of engineering products. This research demonstrates development of large structures such as body of a high performance automobile in a single step resin infusion process. Three different scaled down models of the car were developed according to user's technical requirements focusing on minimal weight, air drag and aesthetics. Pro E and ANSYS were used to determine the optimal shape, geometry, size, aesthetics and strength. The digital model of exterior shape of car body was developed through coordinate measuring machine using selected model instead of Pro-E modeling due to time constraints. The digitized data was used for development of Pro-E model. The Pro-E model was scaled up to generate CAD drawings for tool development. Different stations were marked on the model and sliced virtually for development of pattern.