Oshkosh “Fly-In” preview: Multi-day infusion demo
Visitors to the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) AirVenture 2016 (July 25-31) will have the opportunity to attend a reprise of last year’s multi-day infusion processing demo, again sponsored by Innegra Technologies (Greenville, SC, US).
Visitors who pilot in to (or otherwise arrive at) Wittman Field (Oshkosh, WI, US) for the Experimental Aircraft Assn.’s (EAA) AirVenture 2016 this summer (July 25-31) will have the opportunity to attend a reprise of last year’s multi-day demonstration of infusion processing, again sponsored by Innegra Technologies (Greenville, SC, US) and hosted by Innegra’s infusion expert Russ Emanis. More extensive than the 2015 offering, the 2016 demo will involve infusion of the majority of parts for two composite aircraft: The first, a light sport aircraft (LSA) kit plane, the Star-Lite (see photo at left) will be molded using resin donated by Scott Bader-ATC (Stow, OH, US) and woven reinforcements from Texonic (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, QC, Canada). The second, a canard-wing kit plane designed by Jeff Kerlo, will be molded using epoxy resin donated by Composite Polymer Design/Endurance Technologies (South St. Paul, MN, US) and TeXtreme spread-tow carbon fiber fabrics from Oxeon (Borås, Sweden).
Emanis says distributor Composites One (Arlington Heights, IL, US) will have two technical specialists on hand to help with the processing, and German Advanced Composites (Miami, FL, US) will donate its MTI infusion hoses. Molds for the demos will be provided by Star-Lite’s owner Brian Burghgraves, and by Kerlo and Emanis, who together are developing the canard aircraft for future kit-plane sales. Scott Bader is donating materials for the canard aircraft’s pre-event mold construction, including its Seamless Tooling compound for the plugs, tooling gel coat and a tooling resin to make the finished molds. Hawkeye Industries Inc. (Bloomington, CA, US) will supply mold releases, fairing compounds, tooling materials and more. DIAB Americas LP (DeSoto, TX, US) will provide core material. T.E.A.M. Inc. (Wonsocket, RI, US) has committed to sponsoring/supplying product for the Oshkosh demo as well. (The as-yet unnamed canard plane will be given one by way of a contest held concurrently with the infusion demos.)
“This is all about education,” says Emanis. “We’re going to demonstrate single bag and double-bag infusion methods, and people will see the differences between epoxy and vinyl ester infusion.” The demo will take place in a large tent on the Wittman Field grounds.
More details and a demo schedule will be available at the Innegra Web site: www.innegratech.com
For more about EAA’s AirVenture 2016, visit www.eaa.org/en/airventure
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