I believe I was the first UK builder to use Ampreg 21. I ran out of Ampreg
20 while doing finishing work. Europa eventually supplied me with Ampreg 21
after talking to the LAA who gave informal approval.
I suspect that someone at the LAA said it was OK to use Ampreg 21, having
been told that it was going to be used for finishing, and that Europa
misunderstood this as general approval for Ampreg 21 as a replacement for
Ampreg 20.
Like others who have reported on Ampreg 21 I was not terribly happy with the
stuff. No doubt better for the environment (and for my health), but I
preferred working with Ampreg 20.
John Heykoop
Europa XS mono G-JHKP (Kit #537)
(being painted)
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 4:30 PM, Kelvin Weston <kelv@kdweston.biz> wrote:
>
> There may be a problem for UK builders using Ampreg 21.
>
> Having noticed that the latest build manuals on the Europa website had, for
> some time, listed Ampreg 21 as the supplied resin and after confirming with
> Martin Armstrong at SP Systems (Gurit) that Ampreg 20 had finally been
> stopped, I ordered some Ampreg 21.
>
> As I am mid way through a project, I telephoned Andy Draper at the LAA
> before Easter to find out if I needed to record in my build record that I
> had changed resin types. I was quite surprised when he stated that to his
> knowledge, Europa / Swift had not contacted the LAA about the change of
> resin. He went on to say that as the original testing and type approval had
> been approved using Ampreg 20, the LAA would need to look at the properties
> of Ampreg 21 to decide if it was a suitable alternative. Although he stated
> that he did not foresee there would be a problem approving the alternative
> resin, he left me with the impression that it would be unwise to use it
> until it had been approved and suggested that an update to the Europa TAD on
> the LAA website would be needed and that I should look out for this.
>
> Has anyone else been told this?
>
> A telephone call to the Europa office was met with equal surprise that the
> LAA were questioning the use of Ampreg 21. I telephoned Andy Draper again
> this week and he stated that he had looked at the properties of both resins
> and had some concerns over the glass temperature (Tg) of Ampreg 21 which
> fell short of that for Ampreg 20. He went on to say that they had requested
> further details from SP Systems.
>
> I would guess that a lot of builders are already using Ampreg 21 on the
> basis that it is listed in the current build manual. This could be a big
> problem for UK builders, especially as it is the LAA who ultimately have to
> sign off the build and issue a permit.
>
> Have any other resins been approved for use in the UK?
>
> --------
> Regards
>
> Kelv Weston
> Kit 497
>
>
> Read this topic online here:
>
> http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=294314#294314
>
>
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