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Carbon Fiber Cloth
What Is
Carbon Fiber Cloth?
Todd
Johnson
Carbon fiber is the backbone
of lightweight composites.
Understanding what carbon
fiber cloth is required knowing the manufacturing process and composite
industry terminology.
Below you will find
information on carbon fiber cloth and what the different product codes and
styles mean.
Carbon Fiber Strength
It
needs to be understood that all carbon fiber is not equal.
When the carbon is
manufactured into fibers, special additives and elements are introduced to
increase strength properties.
The primary strength property
that carbon fiber is judged upon, is modulus.
Carbon
is manufactured into tiny fibers through either the PAN or Pitch process.
The carbon is manufactured in
bundles of thousands of tiny filaments and wound onto a roll or bobbin. There
are three major categories of raw carbon fiber:
·
High Modulus Carbon Fiber (Aerospace Grade)
·
Intermediate Modulus Carbon Fiber
·
Standard Modulus Carbon Fiber (Commercial Grade)
Although
we might come in contact with aerospace grade carbon fiber on an aircraft, such
as the new 787 Dreamliner, or see it in a Formula 1 car on TV; the majority of
us will likely come in contact with commercial grade carbon fiber more
frequently.
Common uses of commercial grade carbon fiber include:
·
Sporting goods
·
Car hoods and aftermarket parts
·
Accessories, like iPhone cases
Each
manufacturer of raw carbon fibers has their own nomenclature of the grade.
For example, Toray Carbon Fiber calls their commercial grade "T300,"
while Hexcel's commercial grade is called "AS4."
Carbon Fiber Thickness
As
previously mentioned, raw carbon fiber is manufactured in tiny filaments
(around 7 microns), these filaments are bundled into rovings which are wound
onto spools.
The spools of fiber are later
used directly in processes like pultrusion or filament winding, or they can be
woven into fabrics.
These carbon fiber rovings are comprised of thousands of filaments and are
almost always a standard amount. These are:
·
1,000 c (1k carbon fiber)
·
3,000 filaments (3k carbon fiber)
·
6,000 filaments (6k carbon fiber)
·
12,000 filaments (12k carbon fiber)
This is why if you hear an industry professional talking about carbon fiber,
they might say, "I am using a 3k
T300 plain weave fabric."
Well, now you will know that
they are using a carbon fiber fabric that is woven with Toray standard modulus
CF fiber, and it is using fiber that has 3,000 filaments per strand.
It
should go without saying then, that the thickness of a 12k carbon fiber roving
will be twice that of a 6k, four times as a 3k, etc.
Due to efficiencies in manufacturing,
a thicker roving with more filaments, such as a 12k strand, is usually less
expensive per pound than a 3k of equal modulus.
Carbon Fiber Cloth
Spools
of carbon fiber are taken to a weaving loom, where the fibers are then
woven into fabrics.
The two most common types of
weaves are "plain weave" and "twill."
Plain weave is a balanced
checker board pattern, where each strand goes over then under each strand in
the opposite direction.
Whereas a twill weave looks
like a wicker basket. Here, each strand goes over one opposing strand, then
under two.
Both
twill and plain weaves have an equal amount of carbon fiber going each
direction, and their strengths will be very similar. The difference is
primarily an aesthetic appearance.
Every
company that weaves carbon fiber fabrics will have their own terminology.
For example, a 3k plain weave
by Hexcel is called "HexForce 282," and is commonly called
"282" (two eighty-two) for short. This fabric has 12 strands of 3k
carbon fiber per inch, in each direction.
Todd Johnson
· Regional Sales Manager for
Composites One, a distributor of composite materials.
· B.S. in Business Management
from University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business
· Business Development Manager
for Ebert Composites Corporation
Experience
Todd Johnson is a former writer for ThoughtCo,
who wrote about plastics and composite materials for 2-1/2 years between 2010
and 2013. He is a Regional Sales Manager at Composites One, a composite
materials distributor in San Diego, CA. Johnson provides support to the Greater
San Diego manufacturers of fiber reinforced and polymer products. He regularly
attends composite industry trade shows including JEC, ACMA, SME, and SAMPE. In
2008 he presented at the Global Pultrusion Conference in Baltimore, MD.
Previously, Todd spent six years as the Business Development Manager for Ebert
Composites Corporation.
Education
B.S., Business, Management, Marketing, and
Related Support Services - the University of Colorado-Boulder's Leeds School of
Business; attended Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.
Todd Johnson
ThoughtCo and Dotdash
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Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry publication.https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-carbon-fiber-cloth-820396
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