UMaine Team Develops a New Method to Make Composites
Contact: Roberta Laverty at (207) 581-2110
ORONO — Fabrics, wood, concrete, ceramics and other materials are often infused with resin to produce a stronger, more durable composite product — in the marine, automotive, construction and other industries. Researchers at the University of Maine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center have recently invented a revolutionary new process for producing high performance, cost-competitive composite materials through resin infusion.
Barry Goodell, professor of Wood Science and Technology in the College of Natural Sciences Forestry and Agriculture, Roberto Lopez-Anido, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering, and former UMaine graduate student Ben Herzog, currently a scientist with APA — The Engineered Wood Association, have been granted a patent for ComPRIS, the Composites Pressure Resin Infusion System.
ComPRIS improves on previous methods — hand layup and vacuum resin transfer – by applying pressure to infuse resins to create composite materials. ComPRIS produces a more consistent, evenly distributed resin. It realizes both cost and labor savings, it provides the ability to produce more complex infusions and it is environmentally safer.
According to ComPRIS inventor Barry Goodell: “With the ComPRIS process we can produce very thick composite products without voids,” Goodell says, “and we can do three things at once: laminate materials (such as lumber), as well as reinforce the laminate, and in addition provide greater long-term durability of the final product in the environment.”