Lantor Soric SF (1200mm)

Yes, very much so. In fact, the conformability of Lantor Soric is one of its best features. Really there is no difficulty conforming this core material to even quite complex mould shapes. If necessary it can also be cut and joined.

They're 5mm (nominal)

Yes it is but you'll start to get some innacuracy on the thickness because the texture of the soric sits a bit 'hit-and-miss' when it sits on itself (put simply, sometimes the bumps in it stack up and other times they nest together) so although for certain situations stacking Soric might be fine, if it's a larger area or a whole project that you want more thickness for then I'd probably suggest changing to a core material that's designed to be thickness you're after, such as our 3D|Core which is available in 5mm and 10mm.

Soric can be easily cut using sharp scissors or a sharp knife. Typically when used as a core, it is not physically joined to adjacent pieces. It is sufficient to butt the two pieces against each other.

Yes, very much so. In fact, the conformability of Lantor Soric is one of its best features. Really there is no difficulty conforming this core material to even quite complex mould shapes. If necessary it can also be cut and joined.

They're 5mm (nominal)

Yes it is but you'll start to get some innacuracy on the thickness because the texture of the soric sits a bit 'hit-and-miss' when it sits on itself (put simply, sometimes the bumps in it stack up and other times they nest together) so although for certain situations stacking Soric might be fine, if it's a larger area or a whole project that you want more thickness for then I'd probably suggest changing to a core material that's designed to be thickness you're after, such as our 3D|Core which is available in 5mm and 10mm.

Soric can be easily cut using sharp scissors or a sharp knife. Typically when used as a core, it is not physically joined to adjacent pieces. It is sufficient to butt the two pieces against each other.

Soric is so conformation that I wouldn't really say it has a minimum bend radius. The construction of the material is highly conformable, compressible (until wetted out with resin) and non-brittle. You could literally fold it completely back on itself without it breaking and so, if you want to put a number on it, its minimum bend radius would be its own thickness.

This depends on a few factors:

Firstly, exactly which carbon fabric you're using. You will find that closer/tighter weaves are much less prone to showing underlying materials through the gaps in their weave. Plain weave fabrics rarely show what's underneath, as do fabrics with relatively high pick-counts for their tow size, for example our 240g 3k carbon or 650g 12k carbon are both so dense that you can't really see through them. Lower pick-counts for their tow size, such as a 195g 3k or a 400/450g 12k are much more gappy and will show through what's underneath.

Secondly, wow much that fabric is distorted in order to follow the shape of the mould. If you have a highly contoured mould where the fabric will be required to distort quite a lot in order to follow the contours, then it's likely that in places the weave will open up more and be more prone to showing layers underneath.

Finally is how critical you are. We've made lots of parts using single plies of carbon over Soric. If you really scrutinise them then you can usually find the odd spot where you can see a speck or two of the lighter coloured Soric underneath. If cosmetics are the priority then this would be a problem, however, if the alternative is adding in another layer of carbon than you don't need for structural reasons then you need to weigh up the priorities for the component, whether it's cosmetics, or weight. A good compromise would be to use a single ply of a denser fabric, like our 240g 3k carbon cloth; it's slightly more expensive than a 210g but it's considerably cheaper, and lighter, than adding a whole extra ply.

The quoted mechanical data is the Soric impregnated with a typical unsaturated polyester resin.