Did you know that carbon fabric fiber is used in all kinds of products and production processes? Carbon fabrics can be used in applications like model building, boat construction, sport products, cars, orthopedic prosthesis, industrial constructions, aviation parts, motorsport parts luxury items and jewellery.
Carbon fabric fiber is everywhere. You may have a fiber product at home, like a bike, a fiber wallet or some jewellery. Still, many people don’t know what carbon is and what it’s used for. We made a list with 5 things you don’t know about carbon fabric fiber.
- A carbon fabric fiber product is a blend
Carbon fabric fiber is made from several blended elements. Raw carbon fabric fiber is brittle and can crack and split easily. To make carbon fiber stiff it is blended with epoxy resin, so it can be molded into the shape of the product. This combination of elements gives the carbon fabric it’s stiffness
- There is more than just twill weaves carbon fabric
The twill weave is the most common carbon fabric fiber. It’s logical that people think that this is the only weave that’s available. The twill weave has fibers that are straight, long and strong, but there are a few other weaves. There is fiber available with ‘satin’ weave, ‘fish’ weave, ‘harness’ weave and the ‘harness satin’ weave. These different patters can be used for specific purposes. For example: the harness satin weave is a flexible fiber. It can be used for complex productions, especially seen in reinforced plastics.
- Carbon fabric fiber is made of organic polymers
Carbon fabric fiber is made from many materials. The first, raw material that is used to make the fiber is called precursor. Amongst this pure material, carbon fabrics are made of organic polymers like polyacrylonitrile and rayon or petroleum pitch. Carbon atoms bind all these polymers together. Every type of carbon fabric is made with different precursors.
- Carbon fiber is older than you might think
Did you know that carbon fabric is more than hundred years old? It was created in 1860 by Joseph Swan who used the material in light bulbs. Roger Bacon invented more high performance carbon fiber in 1958. It took five years more to develop a manufacturing process to launch carbon fabrics onto the market.
- Carbon fabrics are countable
If you want to buy carbon fabric, you will often see the letter ‘K’ with a number as 1K, 3K and 12K. What means this? A woven cloth, like twill leave, is woven from bunches of carbon fiber filament, also known as rovings. A roving exists of individual carbon fibers. The ‘K’ number presents the number of fibers in the roving. For example: if you see a carbon fabric with the number K3 it means that a roving is made from 3000 fibers.