----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 5:49
AM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Acrylic
laminating
Brian,
I was thinking on about the same. Personally I think it will work. If
sawed in donuts first , the inner part can be recycled. As a cnc machining
specialist I can advice the flollowing production sequence:
-saw donuts
-turn the inner radius of each slice on a cnc lathe *precise*
-bond the slices together matching the inner radius *precise*
-Clamp the dome internal and machine the outside
-sand and polish
When I visited a large sea aquarium, I saw they bonded the 300 mm
thick(!) acrylic but it was very little visable. maybe on a smaller scale it
is even less visable. The local technical plastics company can supply up to
100 mm acrylic so that means less slices.
The stress comes in the form of tension and a little bit shear . There is
a great bonding area (what wall thiknes do you think about??) I dont think
this will prove a problem on psubbing depth.
What does a factory made 9"dome cost anyway ??
regards, Emile van Essen
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2004 6:09
PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Acrylic
laminating
Hi, I have an idea that perhaps has not been considered
before with respect to acrylic domes / viewports. First off let
me say that there is a good chance that this would generally be a bad idea
but since I don't know that much about the structure of acrylic I will
proceed.
I've noticed with acrylic sheets that they can be laminated
together with some type of bonding agent. I've seen this in large
pieces of acrylic art work. They do this to add color in places and
for other effects. I'm wondering if a dome was made using say 2" thick
acrylic sheets laminated together so that you had say 5 sheets of 2" acrylic
laminated together that would make it so you could have a 9" dome radius if
you machined the interior. Or if the 2" sheets were cut into donuts
first you would have a lot less machining to do to make the final
dome. So the finished product would be an acrylic dome 2"
thick made up of five layers of acrylic. The question is how
thorough is the bonding between the layers of acrylic? And if a
dome was made like this and then taken down to depth what would be the
destruction characteristics that would occur? I doubt that
the handbook for acrylic for submersibles addresses this idea but there may
be some hint of it if it addresses laminating acrylic. The
chemical that is used to bond the sheets is like an acetone type, I believe,
and the sheets are essentially bonded chemically in this way but I am
not very knowledgeable on the details. If this was a viable method it
could reduce the cost of producing a dome. I'm ready to be shot
down!
Brian Cox
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