Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

This project is between the Charpentier lab at UWO and Hudson Boat Works in London, Ontario. Hudson has the currentx000D
challenge of making their boats lighter and faster while using new resins. In particular, the project will investigate eliminatingx000D
pinhole defects on the surface of epoxy resins used in manufacturing their boat shells. Their goal in this project is to examinex000D
various commercial and experimental resins, while developing a more efficient curing process at low temperatures to enhance thex000D
curing characteristics and resulting mechanical properties of the epoxy resin. By understanding the effect of resin properties andx000D
curing temperatures and the role of solvent, Hudson hopes to further improve their manufacturing process for being a world leaderx000D
in this field to integrate new cleantech manufacturing into their process. They are also interested in limiting the weight increasex000D
(ideally, decrease the weight) of their product while further improving the overall performance. In this project, Hudson will supplyx000D
UWO with a mold to make small lab sized rowing shells to investigate cure kinetics and surface performance. Also newx000D
epoxy/carbon fiber polymer chemistry will be investigated at UWO to further enhance these properties.