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Plastics and Composite Fabrication Techniques

Series 100 Classes – Room Temperature Vulcanization (RTV) Molding – AKA Silicone Molding

PAC101 Silicone Molding Basics

In this introductory class, you will learn to make a silicone RTV mold from a small part or pre-made plug. You will make a single-sided mold of a quarter or other small, simple part. You will also examine two-sided mold making, adding registration features and slicing the mold. You will then cast resin in an RTV mold, learning tips and tricks to mixing and pouring resin and other substances to create final pieces from a silicone RTV mold. Designed for the beginner, this class shows how easy it is to build molds with silicone RTV.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $204, Non- Member: $286

Prerequisites: None

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PAC102 Silicone Molding 2 - Multi-Part Molds

You will learn to make a multi-part silicone RTV mold from a small part or pre-made plug. Techniques including adding registration features and slicing the mold will be taught. You will then cast resin in an RTV mold, learning tips and tricks to mixing and pouring resin and other substances to create final pieces from a silicone RTV mold. Designed for the intermediate, this class shows how easy it is to build molds with silicone RTV.
Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $205; Non-member: $287

Prerequisites: PAC 101 Silicone Molding-Open Face Molds

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Series 200 Classes – Vacuum Forming

PAC201 Vacuum Forming

This class covers the basic operation of Urban Workshop’s vacuum forming machine. A discussion of vacuum tooling basics, covering topics such as tooling materials and special geometric factors, is primary to this class. Selection of plastic sheet material will also be covered. Students will be hands-on using pre-made tooling to make a part to familiarize themselves with safe machine operation and part trimming.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $109, Non- Member: $153

Prerequisites: None

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Series 300 Classes – Composite Techniques

PAC301 Basic Composites - Wetlay up Techniques

The objective of this class is to familiarize students with the composite materials layup process. Hand lay-up is a simple method for composite production. The process consists of building up or placing layers of composite fiber in a sequenced layup using a matrix of resin and hardener. In this lab, the students will fabricate by a sequenced two layer layup of composite material using epoxy resin as matrix and fiberglass woven cloth as reinforcement. Students will be able to demonstrate the composite layup process, explain the role of matrix and resin, explain use of resin, hardener and release agent, and demonstrate safety procedures when doing composite layup.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $166; Non-member: $232

Prerequisites: None

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PAC302 Intermediate Composites - Vacuum Bagging Techniques

A vacuum bagged stack consists of a mold, reinforcement (usually carbon fiber), peel ply, breather fabric and then bag. The vacuum bagging process essentially starts out much like a wet layup. You lay up your reinforcement in your mold with resin using an applicator by hand, wetting out your reinforcement. Once you’re done with that, you apply your peel ply over the top, then breather and then your bag, making sure to tape your bag to the mold to make an air tight seal. Air is drawn out under vacuum, allowing atmospheric pressure to be placed on your reinforcement, holding your reinforcement into the mold, while also ensuring that any extra resin flows through the peel ply and into the breather fabric, which readily absorbs excess resin.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $179; Non-member: $251

Prerequisites: PAC 301 – Basic Composites – Wet Layup Techniques

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PAC303 Advanced Composites - Resin Infusion Techniques

The infusion process is quite a bit different from vacuum bagging; you start out with your mold and lay your reinforcement into the mold. Immediately on top of that, place your peel ply and on top of that, your infusion media. Infusion media is a mesh that allows resin to flow through it even though there is pressure from a vacuum bag on top of it and peel ply under it. Then, usually, you need to plan for channels for both resin and vacuum to flow. These are made with polyethylene spiral sleeving in many applications. Then, ports are placed through the bag in multiple locations and the bag is sealed to the mold using tape. At this point in time, resin has not been introduced. To do that, you apply vacuum to one of the ports in the bag, and feed resin through the other port in the bag without allowing air into the resin feed tube. The resin flows through the reinforcement, through the infusion media and makes it’s way to the vacuum port. Once the entire part has been infused, you pinch off access to the resin port, and then pinch off the vacuum port and allow the resin to cure.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $179; Non-member: $251

Prerequisites: PAC 302 – Intermediate Composites – Vacuum Bagging Techniques

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PAC304 Carbon Fiber Basics

Learn the basics of carbon fiber layup, then combine raw carbon fiber cloth, a strengthener and 2-part, high-strength epoxy to make your very own carbon fiber widget and take it home with you. This class focuses on the “compression molding” technique of carbon fiber fabrication, which you can easily use to make your own custom carbon fiber parts. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to do your own carbon fiber fabrication of all sorts of parts, and you’ll want to use carbon fiber for many of your projects.

Attire: Office attire

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $209, Non- Member: $293

Prerequisites:

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Series 400 Classes – Injection Molding

PAC401 Injection Molding Basics - Morgan Press Machine Operation

You will learn how to operate the Morgan Industries G-100T plastic injection-molding machine. Using an existing mold, we will go over all the procedures for setting up the machine for a mold, adjusting temperatures according to the chosen material, and making parts using the mold. We will also discuss how to change over to other materials, and touch on the rudiments of mold design. When you complete this course, you will know how to run parts on the machine using the mold and material of your choice.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $148; Non-member: $207

Prerequisites: None

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PAC401 Tooling Design For Injection Molding

To be able to effectively use injection molding equipment tooling must first be designed and manufactured. We will discuss tooling requirements and tool features such as draft, gates, part ejection, EOP lines, material flow, air vents and more. Mold materials dramatically effect costs and part production and will be discussed along with molding material properties, heating and cooling, and viscosity.

Attire: Pants, closed toe shoes, shirt that covers shoulders

Age: Individual participants in this class need to be 18 years of age or above. Ages 14 to 17 with parent or guardian.

Price: Member: $95; Non-member: $133

Prerequisites: PAC 401 Plastic Injection Molding Basics

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