Carbon in Modern Industries---Carbon fiber

Carbon is the source of life, the skeleton element of all living organisms on earth, and the most important element that constitutes the human body. Carbon in Modern Industries is mainly used as precision heaters, high-strength structures, new batteries, nuclear reactors, etc. in the form of carbon fibers, isostatic graphite, and pyrolytic graphite.

Carbon fiber (CF for short) is a new type of fiber material with high strength and high modulus fiber with a carbon content of more than 95%. It is a microcrystalline graphite material obtained by carbonization and graphitization by stacking organic fibers such as flake graphite microcrystals along the fiber axial direction. Carbon fiber is "soft on the outside and rigid on the inside", which is lighter than metal aluminum, but stronger than steel, and has the characteristics of corrosion resistance and high modulus. It is an important material in national defense, military industry and civilian use. It not only has the inherent intrinsic properties of carbon materials, but also has the soft processability of textile fibers. It is a new generation of reinforcing fibers.

Application field

Carbon fiber carbon materials have been widely used in various fields of military and civilian industries. From civil industries such as aerospace, aviation, automobiles, electronics, machinery, chemicals, and light textiles to sports equipment and leisure products. Carbon fiber reinforced composite materials can be used in military fields such as aircraft manufacturing, industrial fields such as wind power blades, can be used as electromagnetic shielding and antistatic materials, body substitute materials such as artificial ligaments, and can be used in the manufacture of rocket shells, motor boats, industrial robots, and automotive leaf springs and drive shaft, etc. Sports fields such as baseball. Carbon fiber is a typical new industrial material in high-tech fields.

1. Composite materials

Because carbon fiber composites have the characteristics of lightness and strength, lightness and rigidity, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, good structural dimensional stability, good design, and large-area integral molding, they are widely used in various fields of aerospace, defense, military and civil industries. Carbon fibers can be processed into fabrics, felts, mats, belts, paper and other materials. High-performance carbon fiber is the most important reinforcement for the manufacture of advanced composites.

2. Civil construction

Carbon fiber is also used in the reinforcement of:  industrial and civil buildings, railway highway bridges, tunnels, chimneys, tower structures, etc. In railway buildings, large-scale roof systems and sound insulation walls will have good applications in the future. It is a promising application of carbon fiber. In addition, when carbon fiber is used as a reinforced concrete structure, there is no need to increase bolts and rivets for fixing, the disturbance to the original concrete structure is small, and the construction process is simple.

Product category:

1. Pressure vessel

The pressure vessel is made of carbon fiber composite material and is mainly used in compressed natural gas tanks in automobiles, but also in stationary breathing apparatus for firefighters. CNG tanks originated in the United States and European countries, and Japan and other Asian countries have also shown great interest in this application.

2. Wind turbine blades

The rated power of wind turbine generators in the world is getting larger and larger, and the size of the fan blades that are compatible with is also getting larger and larger. In order to reduce the deformation of the blade, carbon fiber is used in some parts of the main bearing parts such as bearings and blades to supplement its stiffness. Carbon fiber also has broad application prospects in new energy fields such as wind energy, nuclear energy and solar energy. When the power of the wind turbine exceeds 3MW and the blade length exceeds 40 meters, the performance of traditional glass fiber composite materials has tended to the limit, and the use of carbon fiber composite materials to manufacture blades is a necessary choice. Only carbon fiber can reduce the weight of the blade and meet the requirements of strength and stiffness.

3. Carbon fiber cloth

Carbon fiber cloth is also known carbon cloth, carbon fiber fabric, carbon fiber tape, carbon fiber sheet (prepreg), etc. Carbon fiber cloth is a unidirectional carbon fiber product, usually woven with 12K carbon fiber filaments. The lightest weight is 1K carbon cloth, and Chinese carbon fiber frame bicycles and tripods basically use 3K carbon cloth. 1K carbon fiber pipe is very strict in terms of the grade of carbon filament, the composition of resin, the density of carbon cloth, the pressure and temperature of molding, etc. The price of 1K carbon cloth is 3 times that of 3K carbon cloth. Available in two thicknesses: 0.111mm (200g) and 0.167mm (300g). Carbon fiber cloth has high strength, low density and thin thickness, and basically does not increase the self-weight and cross-sectional size of the reinforcement member. Carbon fiber is widely used in the reinforcement and repair of various structural types and structural shapes such as buildings, bridges and tunnels, as well as seismic reinforcement and structural reinforcement of joints.

4. Carbon fiber composite sucker rod

Relevant data show that by 2008, 8% to 10% of the updated or newly added sucker rods were replaced with carbon fiber composite sucker rods, which required a total of 320 to 420t of carbon fiber.