At the ACCE 2012 Composites Show, September 11–13 in Troy, Michigan, Momentive Specialty Chemicals, a premier global supplier of epoxy resins and curing agents for automotive applications, will unveil a new epoxy system to hasten mass production of carbon-fiber composites for lightweight automotive structural components.
Curing in as little as two minutes, Momentive’s new low viscosity EPIKOTE™ Resin 05475 and EPIKURE™ Curing Agent 05500 system facilitates industrial scale high- or low-pressure RTM, with direct infusion of carbon fibers.
Features and benefits of the EPIKOTE Resin 05475 / EPIKURE Curing Agent 05500 system are: a very low viscosity at the recommended injection and cure temperature of 115–120°C, a long injection window of about one minute allowing for excellent fiber wetting and mold fill, followed by a very fast cure. The cured system shows excellent adhesion to carbon fibers leading to superior thermal and mechanical performance.
This new EPIKOTE Resin 05475 / EPIKURE Curing Agent 05500 system provides a solution for the production of structural composite parts in a shorter cycle time compared to the EPIKOTE Resin 05475 / EPIKURE Curing Agent 05443 system, which takes five minutes to cure. At the same time, the outstanding resin flow, fiber wetting and mechanical properties of the latter system have been maintained. The Heloxy™ Additive 112 internal mold release agent works very well with both of these fast-cure epoxy systems.