What is Carbon Fibre?

Carbon Fibre is a polymer and is sometimes known as graphite fibre. It is a very strong material that is also very lightweight. Carbon fibre is five-times stronger than steel and twice as stiff. Though carbon fibre is stronger and stiffer than steel, it is lighter than steel; making it the ideal manufacturing material for many parts. These are just a few reasons why carbon fibre is favoured by engineers and designers for manufacturing.

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Carbon fibre is made of thin, strong crystalline filaments of carbon that is used to strengthen material. Carbon fibre can be thinner than a strand of human hair and gets its strength when twisted together like yarn. Then it can be woven together to form cloth and if needed to take a permanent shape, carbon fibre can be laid over a mould and coated in resin or plastic.

On top of being strong, carbon fibre:

• Is high in stiffness
• Is high in tensile strength
• Has a low weight to strength ratio
• Is high in chemical resistance
• Is temperature tolerant to excessive heat
• Has low thermal expansion

Because of this, carbon fibre is very popular in many industries such as aerospace, automotive, military, and recreational applications.

Carbon fibre dates back to 1879 when Thomas Edison baked cotton threads or bamboo silvers at high temperatures, which carbonized them into an all-carbon fibre filament. By 1958, high-performance carbon fibres were invented just outside of Cleveland, OH. Although they were inefficient, these fibres contained around 20% carbon and had low strength and stiffness properties.

In 1963 a new manufacturing process was developed at a British research centre, which is where carbon fibre’s strength potential was realized.

Carbon fibre is made from a process that is part chemical and part mechanical. It starts by drawing long strands of fibres and then heating them to a very high temperature without allowing contact to oxygen to prevent the fibres from burning. This is when the carbonization takes place, which is when the atoms inside of the fibres vibrate violently, expelling most of the non-carbon atoms. This leaves a fibre composed of long, tightly inter-locked chains of carbon atoms with only a few non-carbon atoms remaining.

A typical sequence used to form carbon fibres from polyacrylonitrile involves spinning, stabilizing, carbonizing, treating the surface and sizing.

Almost anything. If you would like a carbon fibre pint glass, that can be made. ICE has made many different shapes with carbon fibre and other composites, including:

Bike frames
Aircraft Wings
Automotive drive shafts
Tubing
Containers
Propeller blades
Car components

According to an article at energy.gov, carbon fibre composites could reduce passenger car weight by 50%, which would improve fuel efficiency by nearly 35% without compromising the performance of the car or the safety of its passengers.

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http://www.zoltek.com/carbonfiber/how-is-it-made/

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-4/Carbon-Fiber.html

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/fuel-economy/carbon-fiber-oil-crisis1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_%28fiber%29