Carbon fiber composites are disrupting myriad of industries, whether in the aerospace industry or in sports equipments. What are they and why are they so important?
Carbon fiber composite, at its simplest, is a material comprising of significantly thin pieces of carbon, woven together, and a resin or polymer to make a powerful, but lightweight substance. The result? A five times stronger product than steel weighing much less.
This makes them valuable because of the combination of strength and low weight that carbon fiber composites possess. An example is that in the aerospace industry, weight is vital in the efficiency of the fuel use. It is the same in the car world as they also use lightweight materials to gain speed, performance, and gas consumption. Electric vehicles (EVs) are particularly affected positively by carbon fiber since it enables them to increase battery range due to the lower number of parts by weight that a car uses.
Carbon fiber is not only used in aircrafts and automobiles. Look at bicycles, tennis rackets, and high-end watches, drones, and even prosthetics. Sports people cannot get enough of it since it makes workouts easier and more productive without additional weight gain. It is long lasting and non-corrosive which engineers adore. It makes designers fall in love with it as it appears sleek and updated.
The other great strength of carbon fiber composites is that they are not threatened by extreme weather and chemicals. This exposes them to be used in extreme conditions such as the outer space, deep-sea exploration and in industrial machinery.
Though there are a lot of advantages in carbon fiber composites, they are not without disadvantages. They are costly to manufacture and once when they got broken they are difficult to fix compared to metal. But with the growth of technology, they are getting cheaper and the use of new manufacturing methods are such that they are finding a way to use them at a lower cost than ever.
To conclude, there is a revolution in the making due to carbon fiber composites in building and designing products. Be it in enhancing vehicles to consume less fuel, sports equipments to be more competitive, to some medical equipments being much more comfortable and easier to operate, this material is turning out to be one of the most thrilling discoveries to have ever happened in modern engineering. Carbon fiber will most likely spread and become even cheaper in the next several years due to continuous research and development.