What is meant by injection molding ?
This particularly innovative technique enables GRP assemblies to be built, no longer by creating several layers of cloth by hand, but by directly injecting the resin into a mold using a system of pumps, after first laying up the cloth. The glass reinforcements and PVC foam items are placed on the punch (pre-designed areas in the mold), then the two molds are stacked and centered with pins. The two halves are drawn together mechanically to form a tight joint around the seals and a vacuum is then created within the mold. The resin is then injected at two points and distributed via a manifold system. The Bi-axial glass cloth then draws the resin into the void between the molds. A first prototype is made without gelcoat; this translucent part enables Dufour to insure that we have a controlled and perfect diffusion of the resin throughout the entire volume of the deck. The consistency of the following decks is controlled by ultrasonic probing, checking the thickness and density of the mater
