Confusion about infusion: An overview of infusion processes

Abstract

Today the impregnation of dry fibre materials is a production method preferred for large composite parts like wind turbine rotor blades or aircraft wing covers. This trend has led many researchers and many companies to deal with new processes or process modifications. Therefore, vacuum infusion is a term with many acronyms. It cannot always be clearly assigned whether a method is a new process or a modification of existing processes. This leads to a jungle of terms and acronyms, which causes confusion. Based on different publications from the past, further developments are to be represented in the present publication to the completion. The focus here is on vacuum infusion techniques and only marginally on resin transfer moulding techniques. In addition, aspects to increase process reliability, such as second vacuum bag and leakage detection, are discussed.