Air Canada Flight 797 – Part 2

In a previous article I described Air Canada’s flight 797 and the effect it had on our industry.

With the mandating by the FAA of a new cargo liner with improved flame and toxicity values, The Gill Corporation (TGC) had to do some fast research. Phil Gill, my brother, ran our R&D department at the time and was able to formulate a phenolic based laminating resin that exceeded all FAA requirements.

Phenolic resins have to be handled differently than polyesters – they have to be cured for a very long time. The best way to do that is to infuse the resin into the laminate reinforcement (fiberglass cloth in this case) and partially cure it by running it through a “Prepregger”, then use the prepreg to make the cargo liner laminate.

The switch from polyester to phenolic was a major disrupter to our industry. We were able to develop a resin and a Prepregger and it gave us a significant jump on the competition.

One of the tenets at TGC is to have control of as much of our process as possible, so we made the decision to build our own Prepregger from scratch. Phil did the research and designed a Prepregger, we built it and it is still in use today.

By making our own prepreg we are assured that the quality of our product is up to TGC standards.