REFLECTOR: Wing Delamination question

Richard Riley richard at riley.net
Sun Mar 5 19:40:49 CST 2006


At 04:22 PM 3/5/2006, you wrote:

>And by the way, I wouldn't use pure epoxy (no micro) since it can 
>melt the foam if for some reason the delam pulled the slurry up from the foam.

Look, I don't want to be impolite since I'm a guest here, but I can't 
let that go by.

Epoxy will NOT chemically melt any of the foams used in these 
aircraft.  If you got an exotherm the heat could damage foam, but 
that has nothing to do with the old micro-slurry on the foam.

There are several kinds of foam you might see.  Blue foam is 
Polystyrene.  It can be melted by a wide variety of solvents (lacquer 
thinner, styrene) and by polyester or vinylester resin - the kind of 
"fiberglass resin" used in surfboards, boats and Glasairs.  It is NOT 
attacked by epoxy.

The other foams - Urethane (like Last-a-foam) is just about 
inert.  PVC foams are - chemically speaking - a hybrid of PVC and 
Urethane.  Polymethacrylimide, like Rhoacell, has great temperature 
range.  Styrene acrylonitrile (SAN) acts like cross linked PVC.  None 
are affected by either epoxy or polyester resin.






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