NS1238 High Temperature Resin Transfer Molding Composites Achieve New Breakthrough – Saio Carbon Fiber Technology

 

Nexam Chemical’s Neximid high-temperature resin systems can operate at temperatures up to 400°C, pushing the boundaries of composites into more demanding applications that were previously impossible.

 

The UK National Composites Centre (NCC, Bristol, UK), in collaboration with Nexam Chemical AB (Loma, Sweden), has successfully created a composite material using a high temperature resin, providing a solution to the challenges of using advanced materials in components that need to withstand extreme temperatures.

 

The NCC’s interdisciplinary expertise in high-volume manufacturing, tooling, design, materials science and flow simulation is said to have helped to address the manufacturing challenges present at high temperatures and demonstrated that composite parts can be made using resins. The NCC says this development paves the way for industry to exploit the qualities offered by composites in very hot elements, such as parts of engines and housings for batteries, which was previously impossible.

 

Throughout the research, the expert team used Nexam Chemical’s new resin system, Neximid. Produced in the UK, Neximid can operate at temperatures up to 400°C, higher than almost all other resin systems reported by the NCC. While resin transfer moulding (RTM) is typically carried out at around 120°C, by developing high temperature specialist equipment – ​​including unique mould design and high temperature sealing – NCC was able to maintain the resin at over 250°C throughout the injection process, allowing the resin’s high temperature capabilities, combined with the high processing temperature of the final product, to cope with much higher temperatures than previous composites.

 

Throughout the process, as a member of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, NCC also demonstrated that the resin system is safe and does not emit significant amounts of toxic fumes like other polyimide resins.

 

“Being able to manufacture carbon fibre composites using a UK produced high temperature resin system is a huge step forward, enabling industry to adopt advanced materials in components that were previously unavailable,” said Dr David King, Senior Research Engineer at NCC. “The material’s outstanding thermal performance extends the boundaries of composites into more demanding applications.

 

Based on the new details of this expanded capability, we are already working with industry customers to develop new applications for composite parts and are excited to further develop our high temperature RTM capabilities by working closely with Nexam and other partners.”

 

According to Boyd Cushing, Business Development, Nexam Chemical UK & Ireland, the company looks forward to welcoming industrial partners who may be interested in its Scotland-sourced Neximid non-ITAR restricted resins for high performance composite parts in aerospace and defence applications.

 

Following this successful collaboration, Nexam Chemical has joined the NCC as an SME Affiliate Member, paving the way for further projects that will help industry use high temperature RTM to their advantage.