The Complete and Comprehensive Guide to the Design and Application of Carbon Fiber

Carbon fiber design, analysis, prototyping, and manufacturing are some of the services that Element 6 Composites specializes in providing.

Carbon fiber is made up of strands of fiber that range in diameter from 5 to 10 microns and are made up of long chains of carbon atoms that are tightly interlocked with one another to form a microscopic crystalline structure.

Where does carbon fiber come from?
The precursor of rayon was used in the production of the very first high-performance materials made from carbon fiber.

At the moment, approximately 90% of carbon fiber is manufactured using polyacrylonitrile, while the remaining 10% or so is manufactured utilizing rayon or petroleum pitch. 3k carbon fiber tube is necessary for the carbon fiber precursor polymer to contain a significant amount of carbon atoms in order to produce high-quality carbon fiber.

Treatment is the third step.
After the carbonization process is complete, the surface of the carbon fibers need to be treated in order to enhance their ability to bond with epoxies or other resins.

Performing this oxidation can be done in a variety of different ways depending on the specific situation. After that, the fibers are wound onto bobbins, then spun, and finally processed into a variety of weaves and other formats.

Reason No. 1: Our Capabilities

The high level of stiffness that carbon fiber possesses in relation to its overall weight is the primary attraction of this material.

The modulus of elasticity is a measurement that can be used to determine how rigid a material is. In most cases, the modulus of carbon fiber is measured to be 234 Gpa (34 MSI).

Epoxy is the most common type of resin used in the production of composite carbon fiber parts. A carbon fiber composite part's strength and stiffness will be the result of the combined strengths and stiffnesses of the fiber and the resin.

In the field of engineering, it is common practice to quantify the benefit of a structural material in terms of its strength to weight ratio (Specific Strength) and its stiffness to weight ratio (Specific Stiffness), in particular in situations in which decreased weight is related to improved performance or decreased life cycle cost.

1. A carbon fiber plate with a balanced and symmetric 0/90 layup and standard modulus plain weave carbon fiber round tube has an elastic bending modulus of approximately 0

2.  Therefore, the ratio of this material's stiffness to its weight, also known as its specific stiffness, is 200 MSI

3.  This plate has a strength of approximately 90 KSI, which means that the specific strength of this material is approximately 1800 KSI

4. 10 lb

5. 3 lb/in3The resulting values for Specific Stiffness and Specific Strength are 100 MSI and 417 KSI, respectively

Therefore, even a simple  3k carbon fiber tube panel with a plain weave has a specific stiffness that is two times greater than that of steel or aluminum.

When one considers the possibility of customizing carbon fiber panel stiffness through strategic fiber placement and includes the significant increase in stiffness that is possible with sandwich structures using lightweight core materials, it is obvious the advantage that carbon fiber composites can make in a wide variety of applications. For example, a foam-core sandwich has an exceptionally high strength to weight ratio when it comes to bending, but this does not necessarily hold true for compression or crush. Without careful consideration of all of the design factors, it is therefore impossible to determine the thickness of a carbon fiber plate that would directly replace the thickness of a steel plate in a particular application. Element 6 Composites has developed methods for the fabrication of carbon-fiber tubes for optimal stiffness along each bending axis, and these methods are currently the subject of a patent application. These tubes have a resistance to bending that is comparable to that of I-beams, while still retaining the high torsional stiffness that is characteristic of tubes.

Reason No. 2: Our products have a Low Thermal Expansion
The fact that  does not significantly alter its dimensions when exposed to different temperatures is an important advantage of using it.

Anisotropic Properties is the Third Justification
It is not possible to make a direct comparison between the properties of carbon fiber and those of steel, aluminum, or plastic when designing composite parts. The ability to Taylor the mechanical properties of a part along any axis is provided as a result of this capability.