4 ms·
The allure of carbon fiber in industry has to do with the properties of the material that can be produced. Home made carbon fiber won't be all that great of a
by kyrra 13y ago
The allure of carbon fiber in industry has to do with the properties of the material that can be produced. Home made carbon fiber won't be all that great of a material compared to what people see out in the world (on race cars, planes, etc...). Production lines for producing commercial carbon fiber is super expensive ($100 million+). Zoltek has a basic rundown of the process [0].
[0] http://www.zoltek.com/carbonfiber/how-is-it-made/ http://www.zoltek.com/carbonfiber/how-is-it-made/
- Gravityloss 13y agoFor the really good stuff, you'd need pultruded carbon fiber where the glue sets with the fibers tensioned straight to really get good strength effects. A lot of composite work is low volume production with excessive manual work at not very good quality. Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) might be a much more interesting material as it has a higher strength to weight ratio and as it melts at a lower temperature, 135 C. It is nontoxic too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular-weight_polyethylene http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-molecular-weight_pol...
- scottdw2 13y agoThat's the whole point. It's disruptive technology: not as good, way more accessible.
- fudged71 13y agoYes exactly http://www.bhorowitz.com/can_do_vs_cant_do_cultures http://www.bhorowitz.com/can_do_vs_cant_do_cultures