Much like cloth, beaver dams, or a rattan chair, the strength of carbon fiber is in the weave. The more complex the weave, the more durable the composite will be. It is helpful to imagine a wire screen that is interwoven with another screen at an angle, and another at a slightly different angle, and so on, with each wire in each screen made of carbon fiber strands.
Optical fiber manufacturing. The client is an Indian manufacturer and one of the world leaders in manufacturi view case study; Developing Advanced Carbon Fiber in India. Nina Hsu Director, Government Relations & Business view case study.
Now imagine this mesh of screens drenched in liquid plastic, and then pressed or heated until the material fuses together. The angle of the weave, as well as the used with the fiber, will determine the strength of the overall composite. The resin is most commonly epoxy, but can also be thermoplastic, polyurethane. If carbon fiber could be said to have any detractions, it would be. Carbon fiber is not easily mass-produced and is therefore very expensive.
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A carbon fiber bicycle will easily run in the thousands of dollars, and its use in automotive is still limited to exotic racing cars. Carbon fiber is popular in these items and others are due to its weight-to-strength ratio and its resistance to flame, so much so that there is a market for synthetics that look like carbon fiber. However, imitations are often only partially carbon fiber or simply plastic made to look like carbon fiber.
This occurs often in after-market protective casings for computers and other small consumer electronics. Recycling carbon fiber is very difficult. The only available method for complete recycling is a process called thermal depolymerization, wherein the carbon fiber product is superheated in an oxygen-free chamber. The freed carbon can then be secured and reused, and whatever bonding or reinforced material that was used (epoxy, vinyl, etc.) is burned away.
Carbon fiber can also be broken down manually at lower temperatures, but the resulting material will be weaker due to the shortened fibers, and thus likely not to be used in its most ideal application. For example, a large piece of tubing that is no longer being used may be split up, and the remaining parts used for computer casings, briefcases or furniture.
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