Design and Development of a Vacuum Chamber for Resin Infusion Process

Resin Infusion Process (RIP) process and its variant was becominga popular process in
manufacturing composite structures. To build up the capability of Universiti Teknologi
PETRONAS (UTP) in this processing technique, a cost-effective method must be
outlined. A vacuum chamber used in this process could be costly. Therefore, the
objective of this project was to produce low cost vacuum degassing chambers which
also function as a resin trap for RIP. The main scope for this study would cover the
design analysis and development of the Vacuum Chamber. The literature of design of
vacuum chamber was reviewed. The design of new vacuum chamber would cover the
design specification, the analysis for thickness of vacuum chamber which was 3mm,
and the thickness of lid which used 20mm Prespex. Fabrication and installation of
fittings was done after all the analysis got the result. Lastly, rim the leak test to analyze
the performance of the vacuum chamber. The design and development of the vacuum
chamber will enable future studies on resin infusion process in UTP. Thus it would lead
to a cost-effective RIP study and understanding ofRIP process.