Why Carbon Fiber Is Becoming More And More Popular?

First discovered in 1879, it consists of a chain of carbon atoms arranged in a perfect way. It has extremely high strength and hardness, and is extremely light in weight. In the 1970s, the price per kilogram of carbon fiber required $2,000. In the 1980s, the price dropped to $100 per kilogram. By 2009, global production reached 40,000 tons, and the price was only $25. Experts predict that its use will reach 140,000 tons by 2020, making it increasingly popular.Carbon fiber is a fibrous carbon material whose chemical composition contains more than 90% carbon.Since the simple substance of carbon cannot melt at high temperatures (sublimes above 3800K) and is insoluble in various solvents, it has not been possible to use the simple substance of carbon to make carbon fibers.

That is to say, carbon or graphite cannot be used directly, like cotton. To directly spin carbon fiber, you can only use some carbon-containing organic fibers (such as nylon yarn, acrylic yarn, viscose yarn, etc.) as raw materials, combine the organic fibers with plastic resin, and place them in a rare gas atmosphere. Carbonized by strong heat under pressure. According to appearance, it can be divided into filament, short fiber and chopped fiber; according to mechanical properties, it can be divided into general type and high performance type. Among them, PAN-based carbon fiber accounts for more than 90% of the entire carbon fiber market.

What Performance Features Does It Have?

Carbon fiber has excellent linear density, and its denier index D is usually 19Nden, that is, a carbon fiber with a length of 9000 meters is generally about 19 grams; it also has a series of excellent properties such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, electrical conductivity, heat transfer and small expansion coefficient. performance. Few other materials currently offer as many excellent properties as carbon fiber. As we all know, carbon fiber is lighter than aluminum and harder than steel. Its specific gravity is one-quarter of iron, but its specific strength is ten times that of iron. However, due to the brittleness and poor high-temperature oxidation resistance of carbon fiber, it is rarely used alone and is mainly used as a reinforcement for resin, carbon, metal, ceramic, cement, and rubber-based composite materials.

In Addition, What Fields Is It Mainly Used For?

Mainly used in national defense industry and high technology, as well as sports and leisure products, such as aircraft, missiles, rockets, satellites and fishing rods, golf clubs, tennis rackets, etc. Industrial-grade carbon fiber is used in different civil industries, including textiles, medicine and health, mechanical and electrical, civil construction, transportation and energy. Especially in recent years, industrial-grade carbon fiber has penetrated into the application fields of traditional aerospace-grade carbon fiber and has begun to be used to a certain extent in sports and leisure products.

Carbon Fiber Road Bike

Carbon fiber is mainly used to make carbon fiber reinforced composite materials. Aircraft made of composite materials made of carbon fiber and plastic are not only lightweight, but also consume less power, have high thrust and have low noise. Using carbon fiber to make electronic computer disks can improve computer performance. storage capacity and computing speed; using carbon fiber reinforced plastic machining to manufacture spacecraft such as satellites and rockets has high mechanical strength and small mass, which can save a lot of fuel. During the war in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, in 1999, NATO used graphite bombs to destroy most of the power supply in Yugoslavia. The principle was to create a carbon fiber cloud covering a large area. These conductive fibers short-circuited the power supply system.

Why Are Carbon Fiber Applications Becoming More And More Widespread?

There are increasing demands in various fields. The demand for aerospace-grade carbon fiber has been on the rise in the 1970s and 1980s, and has now reached its highest peak. The demand for industrial-grade carbon fiber is rising rapidly. In the 1980s, the amount of industrial-grade carbon fiber used was far less than that of aerospace-grade carbon fiber, and it developed rapidly after the 1990s. In 1992, the amount of industrial carbon fiber used exceeded that of aerospace applications. At present, industrial grade carbon fiber accounts for the majority.

Technological breakthroughs and production costs continue to fall. In the past, due to problems such as high production costs, technical difficulties, foreign technology monopoly, and imbalance between supply and demand, the cost of domestic carbon fiber was much higher than that of foreign countries, and the quality of domestic carbon fiber was also difficult to compare with foreign countries. In recent years, relevant domestic universities and scientific research institutions have gradually made breakthroughs in key production technologies for mid- to low-end carbon fiber, continuously reducing production costs, and promoting its wider application in industrial fields. For example, the carbon fiber microwave graphitization production line recently developed by China Seiko Group has overcome major technical difficulties. With independently developed technology, the modulus and strength of conventional T300/T400 carbon filaments have been significantly increased by 10%-15%. For many years, domestic carbon fiber consumption has been too dependent on imports, and prices have remained high due to monopoly technology.

In recent years, with the continuous innovation of relevant technologies, the continuous improvement of raw silk production technology and equipment, and carbonization production technology and equipment, my country’s carbon fiber production field has entered a stage of rapid development, and China’s independently developed thousand-ton high-strength and hundred-ton medium molds have been built. The carbon fiber production system has achieved domestic large-scale mass production of high-strength carbon fiber, and its performance has reached the international advanced level! The above reasons have contributed to the wider application of industrial-grade carbon fiber. However, there are still many gaps between my country and foreign countries in high-end carbon fiber production technology. For example, the latest carbon fiber variety is T1000, but this manufacturing technology has been monopolized by the United States and Japan. , my country can only develop low-end and mid-range models such as T300 and T800.

Carbon fiber itself is of very limited use, and in most applications it must be woven into cloth and then pre-impregnated like resin. Carbon chains arranged in this way can act as reinforcement, similar to how steel bars act as supports in reinforced concrete.

Compared to parts made of steel, the same product based on carbon fiber resin is 75% lighter, yet 3 times harder and 10 times stronger. Strategic weapons and is the earliest use of carbon fiber. It has good heat resistance and can withstand high temperatures above 2000 ° C. High-speed objects are subjected to strong friction to generate high temperatures. If there is no good high temperature resistance, it is easy to burn. In addition, carbon fiber has good compatibility with other materials and can be used in combination.  

Why is carbon fiber becoming more and more popular? In addition to the superior performance and the gradually popularized price, there is another important reason, that is, the wide range of use. In addition to the above-mentioned strategic weapons and fields, it can also be used to manufacture sporting goods, medical and health devices, building materials, bathroom furniture, gift jewelry, etc. Now people are still working on using it in more industries, and I believe it will be used more and more widely in the future.

ISO 9001 certified. BE-CU Prototype Offering CNC machining carbon fiber and other manufacturing services for carbon fiber marterial. Various capabilities include notching, labeling, drilling carbon fiber, grinding, laser cutting carbon fiber, finishing, plating, marking, CNC milling carbon fiber and turning carbon fiber.We stock high quality 3k carbon fiber sheet in a variety of thickness, types and finish. Its a great material used in applications where light weight and strength are needed such as drones. Unlike other workshops, we have no min order and are often filling orders with a single part. We also don’t make you pay for the full sheet and you only get charged for what is used. With a large selection of material, you should find everything you need to make your project come to life. We are also able to handle larger production runs and provide a competitive pricing. If we don’t have the material or finish you require, we are more the willing to look at bringing it in for you.

What Is Carbon Fiber?Carbon fiber is made of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) (or pitch, viscose) and other organic fibers by carbonization (removal of most elements except carbon) by pyrolysis method under inert gas at high temperature above 1,000 °C. Inorganic polymer fibers with a carbon content of more than 90%.