Business ProfileforFiberglass Supply

I purchased 2 gallons of epoxy resin from this company.Their website showed with the slow hardner I would have a 50 minute pot life st 77 degrees. I was working in 58 degrees so it should have setup slower instead it started overheating and smoking at 12 minutes.each batch I mixed smaller amounts to try to give it a longer pot life reach batch did the same. I contacted the company and all they did was email me a pdf from the manufacturer which showed it would have that short of potlife totally contradicting their website and tuff luck to my 1000$ liss

Hi *****,
I am sorry to hear that your project did not turn out as desired. It sounds like what you experienced is what we refer to as 'runaway exotherm'. When infusing larger parts the amount of resin needed and the slow speed of the infusion can create the situation of a large amount of mixed liquid epoxy sitting in the resin supply bucket for an extended period of time; this resin and hardener mix is beginning the reactive process to become a solid and in doing so heat is released, when in the laminate the liquid epoxy mixture's temperature is kept in check by the ambient air temperature as well as the mold temperature, however, the resin in the supply bucket is in a mass that does not allow the air to act as an efficient heat sink and without taking preventative actions runaway exotherm will occur.

There are several ways to mitigate the runaway exotherm issue when infusing larger parts. My two go-to methods are (1) queuing up multiple small batches and having a helper mix these as needed throughout the infusion process and (2) using a water bath as a heat sink for the resin supply bucket. Option 1 really only works well when you have a second person available.

Option 2 works extremely well, the water bath can simply be room temperature, just be sure to stir the epoxy mixture regularly so the resin at the center of the supply bucket has a chance to share some heat with the water around it in the larger bucket. I did an infusion a couple of evenings back using this method. I put about 1.5 qts of water in a 5 qt bucket and had it sitting next to the mold, I then mixed up a 64 oz batch of infusion epoxy with a fast hardener for about 3 minutes. Once fully mixed I placed the 2.5 qt bucket in the 5 qt bucket with water in it and began the infusion. The infusion took over 25 minutes and without the water bath and regular mixing the resin would have gone off in the bucket long before the part was fully wet out.

With proper management of the resin system's exotherm I believe that the resin and hardener selection that you made could work very well for infusing your part. The 3100S that you purchased would be preferred as opposed to using the Resin Research 3100XSlow hardener unless you are planning for an elevated post cure temperature. Our experience with the XSlow hardener is that without an elevated temperature cure the epoxy doesn't give the same stiffness results as a room temperature cure with the Slow or Fast hardener options.

I hope this information is helpful in your pursuit of building your composite parts no matter where you choose to source your materials. We strive to help our customers make the best parts that they can with high quality materials at a great value. We will be reviewing the details of your order, the product information, and follow-up correspondence and discussing it with our entire team to work to locate areas that can be improved to better succeed at our mission to support you in building your best parts. Thank you for bringing to our attention that we missed our **** with your needs and best of luck in your composite pursuits.

Best regards,
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