The benefits of advanced kits in the production process
An effective way to improve efficiency, lower cost and increase quality in your production process is to use pre-cut core material parts, so-called kits. A kit can consist of standardised pre-cut panels or an advanced kitting solution with a CNC proprietary cut profile for each kit detail. With an advanced kit, you will get an optimised fit in the mould, reduced resin consumption, and improved cosmetics for infusion and prepreg applications, making your application lighter than ever.
A kit is a tailor-shaped set of core elements. It can consist of simple pre-cut core panels or complex 3D shapes made with CNC routing. Each piece is pre-cut and then numbered to fit precisely into its designated place in the mould. Kits are designed based on your application’s weight, cost, and quality requirements. At Diab, our kit engineers take geometry and your manufacturing process into account when designing each kit.
Reduce manufacturing time
With kits, you can significantly streamline the manufacturing process and improve the quality of composite applications. By eliminating the on-site cutting of sheets, you can reduce manufacturing time and save labour and material costs. With easy assembly and exact fit, you can constantly achieve high quality in less time. In general, using kits will boost performance in terms of weight, cost, and quality and shorten the lay-up time of the core in the mould. Other benefits are that a kit will decrease moulded weight with improved surface quality, reduce finishing work on laminate, and minimise the amount of waste handling. Working with kits also simplifies internal logistics, reduces stock items, and recovers factory space.
Choosing an industrial or advanced kit
Discussions early in the kit design phase will help ensure it meets all the requirements and expectations for performance, geometry, and the manufacturing process. Our kit and production engineers decide what kit option is best for each case based on this. Industrial kitting is a good choice if your acceptable tolerances on the kit are higher and component weight is not critical. Advanced kitting is the optimal solution where light weight, low resin usage and highest surface finishing are crucial.
Advanced kitting for maximum weight saving
Diab’s innovative Advanced kits offer an optimised fit in the mould, reduced resin consumption, and improved cosmetics for infusion and prepreg applications. Combining our extensive knowledge of kits and infusion with custom software created especially for the task, we can optimise the curvature cuts required in the core to perfectly fit the local curvature of your mould while minimising resin usage. Using a CNC proprietary cut profile for each kit detail, the core is cut partway through its thickness, eliminating the need for a scrim backing, leaving a smooth surface and curvature on the mould side.
The core can also be perforated to allow for resin distribution and airflow. You can add additional grooves to the core surface to distribute resin without a flow mesh. The result is a kit with excellent formability, reduced resin consumption and an improved surface finish.
Many benefits to be gained
With an Advanced kit, there are many benefits to be gained. Using it will, for instance, lower resin consumption by up to 50–75% compared to a standard Industrial kit which will reduce both structural weight and resin cost. The surface finish is also improved because there are no wide cuts through the core that can cause local resin build-ups. An Advanced kit can be designed to have zero gaps between core details. It will also fit better in the mould since each core detail is CNC machined for high accuracy and repeatability, and it can be designed to have zero spring-back. It’s easy to implement varying bevels, the quality and consistency of infusion are improved, and the risk of race-tracks when infusing is reduced.
The optimal solution for low-weight applications
To save time and increase quality, we can include additional positioning milling for fast and correct fitting of the beam structure. The high laminate quality that’s attained decreases costs by dramatically reducing the need for post-grinding and finishing work. With Diab’s proprietary program, we can determine optimum grid directions in each detail, which allows the total resin usage for the core kit to be calculated and compared to other kit designs.
Advanced kitting is the optimal solution when weight, resin usage and surface finishing are critical. Sailing boats, powerboats, yachts, simulators, antennas, aerospace applications etc., are excellent examples where you can utilise the benefits of advanced kits to the best effect.
Take advantage of our expertise
Diab is a world-leading supplier of sandwich composite solutions with long experience developing kits. With in-depth technical knowledge of most manufacturing methods for composites, we understand the essential criteria for the core kit to fit the purpose. We select the most appropriate from our wide selection of finishes for form or flow based on the requirements. We design and produce our kits in-house, and we provide a direct connection between our engineering department and yours. Our experts are often on-site to discuss directly with you, take measurements, and note potential variations during the kit development phase. Together, we find the optimal solution.
