Carbon Fiber Knowledge
The latest from the world of advanced composites and carbon fiber technology.
The wing box is the primary load-bearing structure of a fixed-wing aircraft, transferring lift, bending and torsion from the wing into the fuselage. On modern composite airliners such as the Airbus A350, the wing box is no longer a sheet-metal assembly but a single integrated carbon fib
South Africa is not a large carbon fiber market by global standards, but it is a structurally interesting one. The country's economy runs on minerals — platinum, gold, chrome and manganese are mined deep and processed hard — and every ton of ore movement creates wear that composites han
The defense and aerospace (A&D) sector has been a demanding but modest customer for carbon fiber for decades. That is changing. Unmanned aerial vehicles — from tactical drones to large, medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) platforms — consume composites at a rate that is beginning
The United Arab Emirates has built a diversified economy around three assets that happen to intersect with carbon fiber demand: a global aviation hub that moves more passengers through Dubai than almost any other airport on earth, a space program that has launched its own satellites and
Saudi Arabia is often discussed in composite industry circles as a future market, but the future is already partially here. The kingdom's Vision 2030 program has converted oil wealth into one of the largest construction pipelines on Earth, its renewable energy targets are among the most
Vacuum infusion has become the default manufacturing process for large composite structures such as wind turbine blades, boat hulls, and rail body shells. The process is attractive because it uses dry reinforcement and light tooling instead of a costly autoclave cycle, yet its economics
Laminated composites are strong in their plane and weak through their thickness. When an impact loads a carbon fiber laminate — a dropped tool, runway debris, a blast fragment — the energy propagates as delamination cracks between plies, where only the resin matrix resists. This single
In-situ consolidation is the manufacturing route that removes the autoclave from thermoplastic composite production. Instead of laying prepreg plies and then curing the stack for hours under pressure, an automated fiber placement head heats a narrow zone of carbon fiber towpreg, presses
Liquid hydrogen offers unmatched gravimetric energy density, but storing it at −253°C makes every gram of heat and every molecule of gas matter. A composite LH2 tank has a carbon fiber overwrap for structural strength and a polymer liner for gas containment, yet neither layer alone deci