Bronson Cheramie Lekha Acharya Jake Jones Tyler Miller

Before laying carbon fiber on the sidewalls, we cut a piece of visqueen and it placed over the exposed holes in the hub to prevent excess resin mixture from entering. Our pre-cut pieces of carbon fiber and soric were layered on the foam core. For the sidewalls, the layers included two carbon fiber, one soric, and two carbon fiber. Six layers of carbon fiber only were applied to the outer rim. Once the sidewalls were complete, we bolted the flanges on to keep access to the bolt holes during the infusion of resin mixture and curing process. To finish the lay-up, we cut-to-fit a high temperature peel ply and a green flow media, then laid them over the carbon fiber. The next step in the infusion process is making a “bag” to seal and create a vacuum that will pull the resin mixture into it. Making the “bag” involves taking a sheet of visqueen and folding it once with the wheel inside. The three open sides are sealed using double-sided tape with 2 tubes coming out: one for vacuum and one for the resin mixture to flow through. With everything sealed up, the vacuum is pulled, causing the resin to flow into the bag and on the wheel as seen in Figure 7.7b.