Hi all,
In my efforts to save as much weight as possible during our boats refit i decided to manufacture some carbon fibre trim tabs, the hinge mechanism has been a bit of a challenge as the fibres wrap completely round and back along the tab, the cylinder mounting and reinforcement will be bonded to the top face, the weight will be around one third of the comparable kiekhaefer.

Peter

thats some impressive work!

pimpin'

Wow!!!

Suweetness !

Bad-a$$!

Pretty sweet! what type of layup and post cure? I see you have a uni on the surface are the inner piles alternating? Very nice work.

Thanks guys,
I did quite a bit of testing comparing different carbon fibre layups with ally and steel cut to exactly the same size, the final layup is a 6 layer laminate.. 3 layers of 800gram quadraxial carbon and 3 layers of 600 gram triaxial carbon interlaced.. as we wanted to concentrate the major strength along the length of the tab, with a lesser amounts of fibres in the lamination doing some 45 and 90 degree to add the needed strength across the tabs width. The resin is a high grade polyester, the mould is two piece with bleed holes in the top when the two halves of the mould are clamped together the excess resin exits via the holes.

All The Best
Peter

Brits must give their children weave and epoxy instead of legos. Nice work!

how is the rigidity compared to a set of K planes? I realize that they dont need to be perfectly rigid, in fact thinking about a little flex built in makes sense, just wondering.

Great looking tabs!