Breather cloth, also known as breather fabric or bleeder, is a non-woven felt-like material used in a variety of vacuum bagging applications including vacuum bagging of wet-lay laminates and in debulking and curing of prepreg laminates. When vacuum bagging wet-lay laminates, breather cloth serves both to provide an air path from the laminate to the vacuum connector and also to act as a bleeder or soaker, absorbing excess resin that is squeezed out of the laminate by the vacuum pressure. When debulking prepregs, breather is positioned on top of a perforated release film to help remove air from the laminate or when curing prepregs, breather is placed on top of unperforated release film over some or all of the laminate to maintain an airpath to the through-bag connector.
Breather fabric is most commonly used to ensure complete evacuation of air from within a vacuum bag (a breather layer) or to absorb excess resin from a laminate (a soaker layer). Sometimes, as in the case of vacuum bagging a wet-lay laminate, it serves both purposes. In both of this application, it is essential to separate the breather/soaker layer from the laminate to avoid the material from being wetted out by the resin and becoming an unremovable part of the laminate. This separation is usually provided by a release film, peel ply or both. Breather cloth is also sometimes applied onto the back of moulds to make them less likely to accidentally puncture a vacuum bag when 'envelope' bagging whole moulds.
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