Carbon Fiber Knowledge
The latest from the world of advanced composites and carbon fiber technology.
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
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