The use of Carbon Fiber most especially with sports equipment such as bikes have gone a long way that not even metal can surpass what this material is capable of becoming and producing. But at the same time, Carbon Fiber can be a little vague and mysterious than its metal counterpart. So this article mainly tackles about the things you didn’t know about carbon fiber.
A material called Polyacrylanitrile (PAN) fiber is the origin of carbon fibers. During process, PAN fiber is heated under extreme high temperature which results to during non-carbon materials and leaving away carbon materials creating long and very thin fibers. This output is the one used on most products worldwide. The longer it underwent processing, the stiffer the fiber becomes.
Carbon fiber just like any other materials come in different types; there are those sheet or raw fiber, short-tow fiber that can be considered either clumps of chopped or sheets, a very short in length fiber. The difference between Chopped fiber and Sheet style one is that the first one is used in producing pedal bodies while the latter is mostly with bike frames. Plies or continues sheets of carbon fiber looks like bolt of fabric and often comes wide from a giant spool. On the other hand, raw thread materials are seldom used by producers who have the technical capability to work with it.
The biking industry only uses two standards and it is either called a Standard Modulus or an Intermediate Modulus. But in terms of marketing, they tend to label is as “High Modulus” or “Ultra High Modulus”. Nonetheless, it is synonymous to the higher the standards of the materials used, the more expensive it can get.
There are two reasons why carbon fiber composite is a great bike material. First, it is firmer and lighter than any other materials and second, regardless of carbon fiber’s firmness, it can be easily worked on accordingly, being relatively dependent on to what kind of mold it is set into. Unlike with Metals, which are considered to be Isotropic, may exhibit the same level of strength and firmness but is more difficult to work on.
More than the beautification weaves add to the whole packaging of a Carbon Fiber Composite, what it does best is that it tends to protect the material from scratches, dings and dents. It also showcases how good these producers are to be able to produce such product that can weave such materials thus requires a noteworthy expertise.
All carbon-fiber sheets necessitate exhaustive hands on work or what manufacturers call as Custom Frame building. The only automated process involved in producing such is the cutting of individual carbon plies by computer-controlled equipment. The rest of the process is made by hands. It depends how big the production is but any individual or even a group of people can surely work independently or with together with a group. During the last stage of the production, experts would check the quality of the materials and have to make sure that there are no wrinkles present on the carbon itself or there are no spots and the layers are perfectly compacted otherwise, it will only cause function failure.
It is a myth that carbon fibers cannot be repaired once damaged. There are Do-It-Yourself tutorials on how to do the repairing but it is only limited with small damages. As with larger problems, there are experts that handle such. It is the same process like with other materials when repairing; the damaged part is cut and a new one replaces it, have it connected and painted the same colors as the one already existing.
It has been a fad these days to imitate whatever it is that hits the market right. As for the influence of using carbon fibers with various products and equipment, several styles and frames were created to its attempt to copy such. It may be real that producers can imitate how it looks but never it’s content and complexity. Expected that a lot of manufacturers lack the expertise is imitating the material because it is not simply just copying it but instead having to mimic the complexity and the capability this material can do with the production.
There are a lot that Carbon Fiber can contribute to the whole community, both that recommends progress and also making sure that the environment is not abused.
When the science industry developed this element more to something useful just like what now exists, it would really be a great help in terms of innovations and the idea of discovering unknown elements and making it beneficial for everyone.