High-strength cloth woven from carbon fiber
When advanced composite technology was first introduced in the early 1960s, the emphasis was on increased performance by means of reducing structural weight. When carbon fiber was developed in the latter 1960s, it revolutionized applications demanding light weight and high strength.
Moreover, carbon fiber’s extremely small diameter (6 to 10 microns) allowed a bending radius of less than 1/16″; traditional high-strength steel could be used instead of diamond-tip tools for cutting, trimming, drilling, and machining; and it became available in a variety of strengths, stiffnesses, and other mechanical properties.
The introduction of carbon fibers radically influenced the design of aircraft, racing vehicles, sports equipment, and other lightweight structures, and the material continues to be utilized in new applications today.
Contact: Fibre Glast, Brookville, OH, USA.
For more information, see Transmaterial: A Catalog of Materials That Redefine our Physical Environment
