Newly developed prepreg tooling system

PRF Composite Materials launches new, ground-breaking prepreg tooling system Q.tool. designed, developed and manufactured in-house. According to a company press release, Q.tool significantly reduces the time and costs of tool manufacture, with its uniquely designed surface and 1020 bulk plies.

Using our class-leading RP800 epoxy tooling system, the combination of Q.tool’s new surface and 1020g/m2 bulk plies replaces the 1:8:1 system in both weight and thickness, and significantly reduces the number of debulks to as few as one. The increased speed in lay up and reduced number of debulks provides an estimated cost/labour saving of up to 50%. Q.tool also significantly reduces the amount of plastic consumables used; providing cost savings and a more sustainable tooling system.

Robert Burnell, CEO comments, “After over 40 years in the industry, I have not seen a tooling system that provides the same benefits to the constructor as Q.tool. We have developed this innovative system to not only be a more cost-effective tooling solution, but to also provide an unrivalled surface finish due to its unique design. We are developing all of our prepreg systems with sustainability in mind, with this system working to dramatically reduce consumable plastic when processed.” Kevin Emmett, Technical and Operations Director at Supernatural-x on using PRF’s new Q.tool system, “We are extremely pleased with how it draped around complex mould shapes and it took half the time to produce our tools, requiring only one debulk stage. The drapeability of the heavyweight 1020 bulk ply is exceptional.”