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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi Gray,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>what a nice educational post! However, while most
of what you've wrote is right on the money there are some points which are
misleading or inaccurate IMHO.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"That is why half off you guys say never had a
problem and the other half burn up your inlet tube"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This looks like 50% of our pipes have problems. In
reality, out of over 3000 sold 68 failed including 40 made with wrong mislabeled
hardener. That's only 2.27%. The main reason why some people are having problems
with melted neck is they installing pipe too close to the engine. There are no
problems with two strokes pipes not just because 2 strokes produce cooler
exhaust but mainly because pipe must be in exact distance from the engine. With
introduction of high performance AAP header which is BTW very hard on pipe due
to lack of heat dicipitation by Teflon connecting tube it suddenly become very
easy to fit pipe in airplane by whacking off the Teflon tube. I have seen our
pipe mounted directly behind the header with only 1.5" long Teflon
tube.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"sanded outer surfaces exposing the
fiber"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>will NOT soak up oil on our pipes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Hats off to Bolly" they
use..........."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nothing against Bolly pipes, but they will burn out
just like any other cf pipes if you try hard. Also, they do not use BMI resin.
I'm not sure for 100% but I think they are made in one step. They pull over the
wax mandrel saturated cf/Kevlar sock then they wrap it with Kevlar thread to
hold it on. This kind of technique will produce zillions of pinholes so after
initial cure the whole body is several times recoated before putting it in over
for post curing which will melt out the wax. I've seen advertising
somewhere"triple coated for pinhole free surface". They don't sand outer surface
because they can not do that. They would expose those pinholes if they did. We
were also in the past making unsanded pipes. They were ugly, cost $15 less and
nobody wanted buy them.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All that talk about inlet failures is now history.
We have switched to material you were describing in your post. You were damn
right about all those problems with wetting and curing. After 18 months of
frustrating testing we can now produce every time relatively easily without need
of any special expensive equipment flawless, pinhole free body which will hold
up to 850 deg.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>All of our glow pipes are now made from that resin.
Since April, we have made and sold 180 pipes and so far no problem of any kind.
Our gas muffler is going thru severe durability test. Mounted on test stand
behind ZDZ 40 running wide open for 3 min then 15 sec at idle till fuel runs
out. Total time at full power so far 26 hours 12min and no sigh of
failure. The exhaust temp. in 6" long header just before gas enters the
pipe - 812 deg F. On 12" long header temp. drops to 600 deg. You can check out
all set up at <A
href="http://www.escomposites.com/test_stand.htm">http://www.escomposites.com/test_stand.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ed Skorepa/EScomposites</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=gfowler@raytheon.com href="mailto:gfowler@raytheon.com">Gray E
Fowler</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=discussion@nsrca.org
href="mailto:discussion@nsrca.org">discussion@nsrca.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 24, 2003 8:14
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Composite Pipe Repair</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR><FONT face=sans-serif size=2>The answer.....do it the way
the B-2 was done.....epoxy-aromatic amine (or bismaleimide or cyanate ester)
prepreg cured in an autoclave.....Now can you afford this? Perhaps.
To avoid blatant advertising I will stop here. Anyone interested please
email me offline at Aeroslave@comcast.net.<BR><BR><BR>Gray
Fowler<BR>Principal Chemical Engineer<BR>Composites
Engineering</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>