The evalaution is led by Matt Etchells and Cristian Lira at the NCC and its progress has been reported here.

Synthesites provided two durable cure sensors and in conjunction with the Optimold system and appropriate software, online estimation of the resin viscosity and the evolving Tg and degree of cure were provided as can be seen in the figure below.

The study is using a snap-curing resin from Huntsman(R) (Araldite 3585) and according to the results reported in the publication above the online Tg was within 1.5% of the DSC measured Tg.

From October 2018 there is an on-going study of using the new CF durable sensor from Synthesites that doesn't need any protection over the sensor so a direct contact with carbon fibres is possible.

Relevant Publications

M. Etchells, N.Pantelelis and C. Lira, CURE MONITORING OF HIGHLY REACTIVE RESIN DURING HIGH-PRESSURE COMPRESSION RESIN TRANSFER MOULDING, ECCM18 - 18th European Conference on Composite Material, Athens, Greece, 24-28 June 2018.

G. Stamatopoulos, D. Modi, C. Lira, N. Pantelelis, M. Stojkovic, DEVELOPMENT OF A PROCEDURE FOR ACCURATE SIMULATION OF THE RESIN TRANSFER MOULDING PROCESS, ECCM18 - 18th European Conference on Composite Material, Athens, Greece, 24-28 June 2018.

Below there is a screen-captured video showing how the Online Resin State (ORS) software works during a High Pressure Compression RTM cycle. Online information provided is the measured Resin's temperature and resistance and the estimated viscosity, % cure and Glass Transition temperatrure (Tg).
This specific cycle is for a snap-curing epoxy resin with Carbon Fibres for an automotive component.

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