Enhanced carbon fiber-epoxy composites for rowing racing shells

该项目位于UWO的Charpentier实验室和安大略省伦敦市的Hudson Boat Works之间。哈德森目前面临的挑战是，在使用新树脂的同时，让他们的船变得更轻、更快。特别是，该项目将研究消除用于制造船壳的环氧树脂表面的针孔缺陷。他们在这个项目中的目标是研究各种商业和实验树脂，同时开发一种更有效的低温固化工艺，以提高环氧树脂的固化特性和由此产生的机械性能。通过了解树脂性能和固化温度的影响以及溶剂的作用，Hudson希望进一步改进他们的制造工艺，使其成为该领域的世界领先者，将新的清洁技术制造整合到他们的工艺中。他们还对限制其产品的重量增加(理想情况下是减轻重量)，同时进一步提高整体性能感兴趣。在这个项目中，Hudson将向UWO提供一个模具来制造实验室大小的小型划艇壳，以研究固化动力学和表面性能。此外，还将在UWO上研究新环氧/碳纤维聚合物化学，以进一步增强这些性能。

This project is between the Charpentier lab at UWO and Hudson Boat Works in London, Ontario. Hudson has the currentchallenge of making their boats lighter and faster while using new resins. In particular, the project will investigate eliminatingpinhole defects on the surface of epoxy resins used in manufacturing their boat shells. Their goal in this project is to examinevarious commercial and experimental resins, while developing a more efficient curing process at low temperatures to enhance thecuring characteristics and resulting mechanical properties of the epoxy resin. By understanding the effect of resin properties andcuring temperatures and the role of solvent, Hudson hopes to further improve their manufacturing process for being a world leaderin this field to integrate new cleantech manufacturing into their process. They are also interested in limiting the weight increase(ideally, decrease the weight) of their product while further improving the overall performance. In this project, Hudson will supplyUWO with a mold to make small lab sized rowing shells to investigate cure kinetics and surface performance. Also newepoxy/carbon fiber polymer chemistry will be investigated at UWO to further enhance these properties.