Carbon Fiber Knowledge
The latest from the world of advanced composites and carbon fiber technology.
Switzerland manufactures carbon fiber components the way it manufactures watches: slowly, precisely, and with a tolerance budget that most competitors would consider excessive. The country consumes a modest volume of carbon fiber in global terms, but it occupies an outsized position in
Singapore has positioned itself as the composite maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) hub of Asia-Pacific, and that position matters more in 2026 than ever before. The region now operates the largest share of the global commercial fleet, and modern widebody aircraft such as the A350 a
When the MC-21 narrowbody airliner was designed, its wing was planned around imported carbon fiber and prepreg, sourced largely from Western suppliers. After 2022, those suppliers exited the Russian market, and the composite wing suddenly had no guaranteed material feed. The response be
A bolted composite joint looks permanent the day it is assembled, but it is quietly losing its clamp load from the first torque cycle. When a bolt is torqued against a carbon fiber laminate, the polymer matrix beneath the washer compresses, and because epoxy is viscoelastic it continues
Aluminum airframes are naturally electrically continuous: the fuselage skin conducts lightning currents away from fuel and systems, and the metal shell acts as a shield that keeps electromagnetic interference out of avionics bays. Carbon fiber composites broke that assumption. A CFRP sk
Adhesive bonding is the only joining method that does not damage the fibers it connects: no holes, no fasteners, no stress concentrations left in the laminate by machining. But the adhesive joint has its own hidden variable — the bondline, the thin layer of adhesive between the two adhe
A woven fabric is, by construction, a compromise: the warp and weft yarns cross over and under each other, and every crossing creates crimp that kinks the fibers out of their straight path. Under load, those kinked fibers try to straighten, which reduces stiffness, creates local stress
The automotive driveshaft sits at the geometric center of the vehicle, yet its length and rotation speed place it at the heart of some of the most rigid constraints in driveline engineering. A steel tube that is too long for its diameter reaches its first bending critical speed inside t
A helicopter rotor blade is a rotating beam that must do three jobs at once: carry centrifugal force from the rotation, resist flap bending from lift, and absorb lag bending from drag. Add the fact that each blade completes thousands of load cycles per hour of flight, and it becomes cle