23rd ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering December 6-11, 2015, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A LABORATORIAL RESIN TRANSFER MOULDING Bruno Moura Miranda Wanderley Ferreira de Amorim Júnior Francisco Neto Federal University of Campina Grande, Av. Aprígio Veloso, 882, Bodocongó Campina Grande-PB, Brazil bmouramiranda@gmail.com wanderley@dem.ufcg.edu.br francisconeto.cg@gmail.com Diego David Silva Diniz Federal Rural University of Semi-arid, RN 233, KM 01, Caraúbas-RN, Brazil diego.diniz@ufersa.edu.br Abstract. The objective of this work was design a laboratorial Resin Transfer Moulding Equipment to process composites. The following methodology was fulfilled: Design and manufacture of the equipment, testing its process capabilities, injection tests in the processing stations, manufacturing of composite plates and further characterization. The materials used in the experiments were glass fiber mat (450g / m2), base glass fiber fabric (600 g / m2), a medium viscosity 1.0 Arazyn Ara Ashland ® # 08 unsaturated polyester resin and 50 Butanox. Small and large area plates were produced with dimensions of: 175x125x5mm and 340x340x5mm respectively. Based on the results experiments, it is concluded that it was possible the design, development and manufacture of a resin injection equipment RTM for laboratory use with low cost and low energy losses, for the manufacture of composites with two reinforcement kind: mat and fabric, with different weights and thin. Keywords: Resin Transfer Moulding; Composite Plates; Processing Station; Small Area Plates; Large Area Plates 1. INTRODUCTION In recent decades, composite materials have gained prominence on the world scenery and with plastic and ceramic, is the material who has the fastest growth in production volume and penetration of new markets (Barbero, 1999). Thus, the composites have great industrial importance because of its specific characteristics and properties. Within this aspect, such materials allow the engineer to some extent, designing material emphasizing the necessary features and minimizing other undesirable, adapting them to each application (Mendonça, 2005). A range of properties is relevant and can be manipulated, such as low weight, stiffness, static resistance, abrasion and corrosive environments, insulation or electrical conductivity, thermal and acoustic (Soeira, 2009). In general, the composite is present in two phases: the continuous phase and the dispersed phase, also called matrix and reinforcement, thus the main function of reinforcing the matrix is involved. In the case of fiber-reinforced composites, the matrix serves to bind the fibers to each other and to promote the transmission and distribution of the stresses when the material is subjected to applied loads (Potter, 1997). The increase is directly responsible for the mechanical properties such as tensile strength, hardness, toughness and stiffness. Amorim (2007) explains that for processing of composite parts, the known prior generation of designs for minimum weight, shifted its focus to the awakening of the various industrial sectors in the 80s and 90s reaching generation projects for minimal cost (design for cost): Traditional processes such as manual lamination (hand lay-up), projection by rolling (spray-up) and filament winding (filament winding). These processes can be considered with low productivity and relatively simple geometries specific to the detriment of the autoclaving processing which uses pre- impregnated (known as pre-pregs). This is adopted to the production of high performance composites. No need for an inert gas during its process combined with a pre-pregs storage under refrigeration. The inherent complexity of the process leads to increased cost. Therefore, the possibility of producing composite parts using a technique that have a adequacy between a good quality at a low cost has made the RTM method, obtain great interest and development took place in the most varied production fronts, suffering variations and generating a new range of methods, of which the RTM and Light Vacuum assisted RTM (VARTM) serve as an example. In this respect, the process of resin transfer molding (RTM) has been increasing substantially due to the quality of finish of the final product as well as its high capacity and low environmental impact. This processing by RTM was originally developed for aerospace applications general in the 1980s and its development was supported by a substantial research effort aimed explain fundamental aspects of the same by means of effective models (Potter, 1999).