Care Of Carbon Fiber Parts - Nacra FCS Owner's Manual

9. Care of Carbon fiber Parts

Each carbon-fibre mast and FCS foils (Daggerboard, Rudder-
blade and rudderstock) delivered by Nacra has been manu-
factured using heat and pressure autoclave curing, the best
process available.
Since carbon fibre composite is different than aluminium to
drill, file, or otherwise process, always contact your Nacra
dealer for advice before making any modifications to the
mast and foils.
Handling & Storage
Carbon fibre has properties differing from aluminium.
Though carbon composite is stronger than aluminium, it is
less resistant to impact loads. Where aluminium will dent on
severe impact, carbon composite could shatter or suffer
serious delaminating. Clearly, subjecting your carbon spars
to severe impact is to be avoided.
When transporting your mast it is important to pack it well
using covers which are available at your Nacra dealer.
Ensure that rigging is removed to prevent the stays from
wearing or banging against the mast. It is recommended to
fully inspect your mast and foils when re-rigging.
Care
In order to get the maximum life from your carbon fibre
composite we recommend the following care and precau-
tions:
 Do NOT allow the carbon composite parts to become
excessively hot. High performance epoxy resins, togeth-
er with oven post curing, are used in these composites,
however at temperatures above approximately 75
epoxy can soften which dramatically reduces strength or
otherwise can cause the part to bow or warp. Note that
black objects are the best absorbers of IR radiation
(heat) and we have recorded a surface temperature of
o
65 C from a part lying flat on the ground in the sun.
 Epoxy resins are UV light degraded. Although our
epoxy resins have UV light protection, excessive UV light
has the effect of turning the exposed epoxy resin into a
chalky layer. Therefore it is recommended to keep your
mast as much as possible out of the UV light . It is best
to cover it when not rigged. Therefore it is also recom-
mended to wax your mast with any UV protection wax
e.g. Teflon wax etc.
o
C the
22