Sheet Metal Rings

Wrap each ply around a properly sized mandrel and vacuum bag and cure.

Adhesion to SS will be a problem. You may either wire brush the mating surfaces or perforate the SS so the resin can flow through.

Assuming you will be using prepreg.

That's "vacuum laminating" in a nut shell.

I didn't know nut shells were airtight. I learn something new every day on this website.

They're not. Not very flexible, either. That's why you need a really big vacuum pump.

Is this the form that the laminate will take?

The stresses placed on the finished pieces will determine what type and amount of laminating adhesive is to be used.

What will the finished pieces be used for?

If you are producing high volume, a web process or partial web process would be the most economical. However, there are inherent issues web laminating this thick of material.

Starting off with SS and graphite roll stock adhesive-coat the most flexible substrate (the graphite in this case).

Once through the laminator, run through some flattening rollers, then onto a flat table, and cut.

Continue until you get a sufficient stack of 2-ply laminate.

These may then be laminated in twos, SS side of one to graphite side of the other to yield a 4-ply product.

One more piece of SS laminated to the graphite side of the 4-ply sheet gives the final product.

Out of the now 5-ply sheets you can water or laser cut the desired shapes.

Come to think of it now, don't use a web in the first lamination step; go with a completely sheeted lamination process.

More info would be helpful.

That's a disk, not a ring. That, you can do in a press.

Maybe a band?? is a better term???

Who knows, except the OP? Maybe the rings are annular, like a stack of washers.

OK, so I didn't make a ring.

There! Happy now?

Sometimes a drawing is the only way to make a text-only description clear. I wish more OPs could/would throw in a sketch!

Nice washer.

Or...

Jelly, Baby.

I'm guessing that if it were a band the I.D. would be approx 258mm given a thickness of no more than 5.4mm and an O.D. of 268mm. So a stack of Washers seems more likely. Once i would have put the laminated pile on a faceplate with 8mm or 10mm thick top and bottom plates of mild steel. Trepanned out the bore and bolted from the inside and then turned down the O.D. Nowadays water cutting would be my preferred option ( it means someone else has to do it)

Jim

Water jetting through a laminate comprising hard and soft materials is not an option. The water will undercut the graphite.

1 Laser cut/water jet the SS first so that you have a washer attached by thin sprews to external register holes, so that the sheets of SS can be perfectly aligned.

2 Assemble into a laminate with complete sheets of graphite.

3 Cut off the sprews as close as possible to the OD. Can be done after operation 4 if this eases clamping

4 Clamp at the edge and mill/bore out the centre. You are only cutting graphite so there will be less tendency for it to crumble.

5 Clamp at the centre and mill/turn down the edge. Most of the cutting will be graphite. The only SS removed will be the sprew nibs.

Sprue

--Ed. C.

Graphite? what kind? raw graphites are brittle and would crumble down on load. Do you mean, 'graphoil' like?

I smuggled this graphite/stainless bonding report out of Oak Ridge National Laboratory back in '62. They don't know where I live now, so here's a copy for you:

http://www.ornl.gov/info/reports/1962/3445605488736.pdf

Mark Bingham
Relativity PL

The OP's gone, as usual, and we're just guessing, so I'm outta here.