The above photos show the difference between the epoxy cured part, left image, and the UV resin cured part, right image. The infused part took longer to produce initially due to longer set up times for that process but the cure time, 10 minutes under the UV lamps, is far shorter than the elevated temp epoxy's initial cure time. The epoxy was left under 29" Hg vacuum for one hour prior to placement in the oven. Temperature was then ramped up until 150F was reached. A one hour soak is then needed at 150F. At the end of the 150F soak approximately 2.5 hours has passed. After the one hour 150F soak the oven was left closed overnight, allowing it to cool. The next morning the oven still retained some of its heat, even though it had been completely shut off seven hours earlier. This is a good indication of the oven's insulating properties. Higher temperatures will stress the insulation more but only the first layer of insulation currently sits on the oven's surfaces, 1.5". The oven will soon be fully insulated and skinned out. The final insulation thickness will be 4.5". From a time/labor standpoint regarding the cure time, the UV resin wins. Prep time with materials takes longer but prep time with mixing a two part epoxy has to be considered as well. Another difference between the two is that the UV resin is almost five times cheaper than the elevated temperature epoxy used, in this example. Add this to the extended cure and use of a computer controlled, 10000 watt oven, and it is clear that parts made with the elevated temp epoxy will cost much more, all things held as equal as possible. The downside of the UV resin is that it can only be used on transparent materials like quartz or fiberglass. It cannot be used on Kevlar or carbon fiber. There are many more complexities in comparing these two methods and materials to each other. One last major area of interest is a strength comparison between the two resins. A second UV resin/infusion lay up will be needed. This additional lay up will try to reduce the 30% resin content of the first trial, so as to be much closer in resin content to the epoxy test sample, 16.137%. Comparing the two test panels above would not be comparing apples to apples, as the infusion/UV resin panel has almost twice the resin content of the epoxy panel.         To learn why an oven is an important part of advanced composite fabrication, please click here.