Top 9 Things You Didn't Know About Carbon Fiber
10-22-2014, 10:51 AM
#1
Moderator
Thread Starter
Top 9 Things You Didn't Know About Carbon Fiber
With all of the Carbon Fiber used in the C7, this is a nice primer on carbon fiber from the U.S. Department of Energy:
9. Carbon fiber -- sometimes known as graphite fiber -- is a strong, stiff, lightweight material that has the potential to replace steel and is popularly used in specialized, high-performance products like aircrafts, racecars and sporting equipment.
8. Carbon fiber was first invented near Cleveland, Ohio, in 1958. It wasn’t until a new manufacturing process was developed at a British research center in 1963 that carbon fiber’s strength potential was realized.
7. Current methods for manufacturing carbon fiber tend to be slow and energy intensive, making it costly for use in mass-produced applications. With a goal of reducing carbon fiber production costs by 50 percent, the Energy Department’s new Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with manufacturers and researchers to develop better and cheaper processes for producing carbon fibers. Lowering the cost of carbon fibers make it a viable solution for vehicles and a wide variety of clean energy applications.
6. The 42,000-square foot facility features a 390-foot-long processing line that is capable of producing up to 25 tons of carbon fiber a year -- that is enough carbon fiber to cover the length of almost 138,889 football fields.
5. The most common carbon fiber precursor -- the raw material used to make carbon fibers -- is polyacrylonitrile (or PAN), accounting for more than 90 percent of all carbon fiber production. Other precursors options include a common plastic and a wood byproduct.
4. As part of conventional carbon fiber production, precursors go through several processes that include stretching, oxidation (to raise the melting temperature) and carbonization in high-temperature furnaces that vaporize about 50 percent of the material, making it nearly 100 percent carbon.
3. Carbon fiber can be woven into a fabric that is suitable for use in defense applications or added to a resin and molded into preformed pieces, such as vehicle components or wind turbine blades.
2. The next generation of carbon-fiber composites could reduce passenger car weight by 50 percent and improve fuel efficiency by about 35 percent without compromising performance or safety -- an advancement that would save more than $5,000 in fuel over the life of the car at today’s gasoline prices.
1. In addition to its uses in manufacturing of cars and trucks, advances in carbon fiber will help American manufacturers lower the cost and improve the performance of wind turbine blades and towers, electronics, energy storage components and power transmission lines.
8. Carbon fiber was first invented near Cleveland, Ohio, in 1958. It wasn’t until a new manufacturing process was developed at a British research center in 1963 that carbon fiber’s strength potential was realized.
7. Current methods for manufacturing carbon fiber tend to be slow and energy intensive, making it costly for use in mass-produced applications. With a goal of reducing carbon fiber production costs by 50 percent, the Energy Department’s new Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working with manufacturers and researchers to develop better and cheaper processes for producing carbon fibers. Lowering the cost of carbon fibers make it a viable solution for vehicles and a wide variety of clean energy applications.
6. The 42,000-square foot facility features a 390-foot-long processing line that is capable of producing up to 25 tons of carbon fiber a year -- that is enough carbon fiber to cover the length of almost 138,889 football fields.
5. The most common carbon fiber precursor -- the raw material used to make carbon fibers -- is polyacrylonitrile (or PAN), accounting for more than 90 percent of all carbon fiber production. Other precursors options include a common plastic and a wood byproduct.
4. As part of conventional carbon fiber production, precursors go through several processes that include stretching, oxidation (to raise the melting temperature) and carbonization in high-temperature furnaces that vaporize about 50 percent of the material, making it nearly 100 percent carbon.
3. Carbon fiber can be woven into a fabric that is suitable for use in defense applications or added to a resin and molded into preformed pieces, such as vehicle components or wind turbine blades.
2. The next generation of carbon-fiber composites could reduce passenger car weight by 50 percent and improve fuel efficiency by about 35 percent without compromising performance or safety -- an advancement that would save more than $5,000 in fuel over the life of the car at today’s gasoline prices.
1. In addition to its uses in manufacturing of cars and trucks, advances in carbon fiber will help American manufacturers lower the cost and improve the performance of wind turbine blades and towers, electronics, energy storage components and power transmission lines.
10-22-2014, 10:55 AM
#2
Moderator
Thread Starter
How it's made video:
10-22-2014, 11:09 AM
#3
Melting Slicks
Thanks for the info. Never realized how complicated the manufacturing process was.
10-22-2014, 12:19 PM
#8
One thing not mentioned in the video is that one of the biggest costs in the completed product is the hand labor in laying up the sheets in a mold, which I think GM has been working on to automate.
Does anybody remember Bucky Tubes? These were engineered molecules that were hollow tubes and promised to be the next big step in light weight engineering. I haven't heard anything about them for years.
Does anybody remember Bucky Tubes? These were engineered molecules that were hollow tubes and promised to be the next big step in light weight engineering. I haven't heard anything about them for years.
12-02-2014, 09:10 AM
#9
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Big question .........how can it be repaired???? What happens in an accident???
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robertlamattina (09-23-2019)
12-02-2014, 09:58 AM
#10
Burning Brakes
I wear carbon fiber! It is what my prosthetic is made from. Ultra light, very good looking and above all strong. Soon will be testing a new foot that has very little metal to the point it will weight 0.8 of a pound, improve gait and may be a solution for a better life style for our injured solders. Hopefully before the new Z06 arrives the testing of the new carbon will have begun. A truly great product.
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Keithwinnfl (04-23-2020)
12-02-2014, 09:58 AM
#11
One thing not mentioned in the video is that one of the biggest costs in the completed product is the hand labor in laying up the sheets in a mold, which I think GM has been working on to automate.
Does anybody remember Bucky Tubes? These were engineered molecules that were hollow tubes and promised to be the next big step in light weight engineering. I haven't heard anything about them for years.
Does anybody remember Bucky Tubes? These were engineered molecules that were hollow tubes and promised to be the next big step in light weight engineering. I haven't heard anything about them for years.
steve l
73 coupe since new
12-02-2014, 10:54 AM
#12
Safety Car
The bicycle industry has used carbon fiber for 25+ years now with an absolute explosion in use the last 10 years. It was once thought if you damage a carbon fiber frame it's toast - now that is known to be false. Repair is actually pretty similar to fiberglass repair - the problem is whether the repaired area will be painted (so fabric weave orientation is hidden) or whether it will be visible (where fabric weave appearance is important). One of the main reasons the exposed carbon fiber roof is so expensive is because the appearance matters (it's not just because of the UV resistant clear that is applied). If you take a painted C7 roof (which is still carbon fiber construction) and strip the paint it will NOT look the same as the exposed roof - the weave orientation will be all over the place. Same thing with bicycle frames - if you find an exposed carbon weave frame it will always be substantially more expensive than a painted carbon frame. That's one of the reasons why Trek and Specialized bicycle frames cost less than frames like Colnago or Pinarello - Trek and Specialized are painted and the weave orientation doesn't matter from a cosmetic view (but does still from a structural view). And, as pointed out above, MUCH of the product sold by the aftermarket here as "carbon fiber" is a thin overlay on a plastic / composite base vs. true structural carbon fiber. In that case the only real reason to purchase it is appearance - for my money the hydrocarbon looks just as good in that setting and is a fraction of the cost.
12-02-2014, 04:13 PM
#15
Safety Car
Fabric + Resin - much like fiberglass. It all depends on whether you want it structural, pretty, or both. BOTH is difficult to achieve.
12-02-2014, 04:27 PM
#16
Burning Brakes
The bicycle industry has used carbon fiber for 25+ years now with an absolute explosion in use the last 10 years. It was once thought if you damage a carbon fiber frame it's toast - now that is known to be false. Repair is actually pretty similar to fiberglass repair - the problem is whether the repaired area will be painted (so fabric weave orientation is hidden) or whether it will be visible (where fabric weave appearance is important). One of the main reasons the exposed carbon fiber roof is so expensive is because the appearance matters (it's not just because of the UV resistant clear that is applied). If you take a painted C7 roof (which is still carbon fiber construction) and strip the paint it will NOT look the same as the exposed roof - the weave orientation will be all over the place. Same thing with bicycle frames - if you find an exposed carbon weave frame it will always be substantially more expensive than a painted carbon frame. That's one of the reasons why Trek and Specialized bicycle frames cost less than frames like Colnago or Pinarello - Trek and Specialized are painted and the weave orientation doesn't matter from a cosmetic view (but does still from a structural view). And, as pointed out above, MUCH of the product sold by the aftermarket here as "carbon fiber" is a thin overlay on a plastic / composite base vs. true structural carbon fiber. In that case the only real reason to purchase it is appearance - for my money the hydrocarbon looks just as good in that setting and is a fraction of the cost.
12-02-2014, 05:19 PM
#18
Moderator
Thread Starter
12-02-2014, 06:41 PM
#20
You need an oven too, but you're right. There is a TV program on how they build Lamborghinis and it shows the process they go thru to build the tub. It also shows how they repair crash damage. I hope the next big step for Corvette will be to get rid of the perimeter frame and go all CF.