Com­par­i­son of the per­for­mance of car­bon fiber with oth­er major mate­ri­als

There are so many dif­fer­ent types of mate­ri­als on the mar­ket, why choose car­bon fiber with a high­er price? Let’s take a look at the per­for­mance com­par­i­son between car­bon fiber and some main­stream mate­ri­als.

Mate­r­i­al	Den­si­ty (g/cm^3)	Ten­sile strength (Gpa)	Ten­sile mod­u­lus (Gpa)	Advan­tage	Short­com­ing
Car­bon fiber	1.5–2	2.0–7.0	200–700	It has excel­lent mechan­i­cal prop­er­ties and a high degree of light­weight	The cost is high and the man­u­fac­tur­ing process is com­plex
Fiber­glass	2	1.5	42	Excel­lent insu­la­tion, cor­ro­sion resis­tance, high tem­per­a­ture resis­tance, low price	It is brit­tle and has poor wear resis­tance
Alu­minum alloy	2.8	0.47	75	The man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nol­o­gy is mature and the phys­i­cal prop­er­ties are good	The cost is high, the bear­ing capac­i­ty, and the high tem­per­a­ture resis­tance per­for­mance is poor
Tita­ni­um alloy	4.5	0.96	114	Low coef­fi­cient of ther­mal expan­sion, good plas­tic­i­ty, cor­ro­sion resis­tance, envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion	The cost is high­er and the pro­por­tion is larg­er
High-strength steel	7.8	1.08	210	The man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nol­o­gy is mature, the cor­ro­sion resis­tance is good, and the cost is low	The mechan­i­cal prop­er­ties are weak and the strength is low

Intro­duc­tion to car­bon fiber rein­forced plas­tics(FRP)

Com­pos­ites are a com­bi­na­tion of two or more com­po­nents in dif­fer­ent pro­por­tions that can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve the engi­neer­ing prop­er­ties of mate­ri­als.

Car­bon fiber rein­forced plas­tic (FRP) is a ver­sa­tile, high-strength com­pos­ite mate­r­i­al made by mix­ing rein­forced car­bon fiber with plas­tics (such as PLA, nylon, ABS, PEEK, etc.). It can be wide­ly used in aero­space, health care, rac­ing cars, sports equip­ment and oth­er fields.

It is also a non-metal­lic light­weight mate­r­i­al that can be select­ed for prod­uct light­weight­ing. In air­planes, race cars and high-end cars, we often see FRP parts, which are more than three times stronger and stiffer than alu­minum, but are 40% lighter. There­fore, it can replace met­als in cer­tain appli­ca­tion sce­nar­ios.

How are car­bon fiber parts made?

The tra­di­tion­al man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nol­o­gy of car­bon fiber parts is to first weave car­bon fiber fil­a­ments into cloth-like fiber lay­ers, and then lam­i­nate them on the final parts one by one.

The fibers can be direct­ed to mono-weave and strate­gi­cal­ly aligned to pro­duce strength rel­a­tive to the vec­tor. Cross-woven fibers can be used to gen­er­ate strength in mul­ti­ple vec­tors, and they are also respon­si­ble for the sig­na­ture quilt­ed appear­ance of com­pos­ite parts. But this tech­nique has dis­tinct advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages.

Advan­tages:

1) It can man­u­fac­ture large parts, such as car body parts.

2) Sup­port high-vol­ume pro­duc­tion

Dis­ad­van­tages:

1) Do not man­u­fac­ture small and com­plex del­i­cate parts.

2) The mold needs to be opened, which is more time and cost. Of course, com­bined with 3D print­ing tech­nol­o­gy, this prob­lem is solved, which pro­vides a low-cost and fast solu­tion for the pro­duc­tion of molds and mod­els for mak­ing car­bon fiber parts.

Post-pro­cess­ing for car­bon fiber parts

1) pol­ish­ing

Car­bon fiber parts gen­er­al­ly need to be pol­ished, which can quick­ly remove impu­ri­ties on the sur­face of car­bon fiber com­pos­ites, and can improve the degree of sur­face tex­tur­ing, increase the occlu­sion abil­i­ty, and thus increase the dura­bil­i­ty of struc­tur­al adhe­sives.

2) Wash and bake

Wash off the ton­er par­ti­cles that remain on the sur­face of the work­piece dur­ing pol­ish­ing and bake until the water has com­plete­ly evap­o­rat­ed.

3) Paint­ng

Car­bon fiber parts are paint­ed three times: primer, col­or paint, and trans­par­ent sur­face paint, and each spray needs to be baked once. If you find a defect such as paint par­ti­cles or dents on the sur­face, you need to pol­ish or fill it up until the sur­face is smooth.

Pro­to­soon can pro­vide you with one-stop car­bon fiber solu­tions, we have car­bon fiber lam­i­na­tion tech­nol­o­gy and 3D print­ing tech­nol­o­gy, which can meet your car­bon fiber appli­ca­tions in dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios, if you need to con­sult, please con­tact us.