Thread: Carbonfiber
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Old 02-02-2010, 05:51 PM   #11 (permalink)
aerohead
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carbon fiber

I've only worked with pre-preg epoxy cloth.It required continuous refrigeration and documentation in and out of the refer.
We vacuum-bagged the material within tooling,the whole works inside an autoclave for the post-cure necessary to develop full strength.
It produced a fabulous part,extremely light for it's strength.Very expensive!
I know of only one person locally who works with the material.He does vacuum-bagged wet layups of experimental water ski's.He runs a ski service and can absorb expenses as a part of his business.
A certain university was given a large quantity of this material from an aerospace contractor and after considering the material,chose not to let the students to work with it.
Some consider it to be the new asbestos.
While I see the "promise" for the material,I doubt I'll ever use it again.I just cannot reconcile the expense over generic FRP.

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