Exploring Carbon Composites: Promoting Changes to Manufacturing Landscape

Experts call carbon fiber composites a wonder material. Known for their impressive strength-to-weight ratio, structural integrity, corrosion resistance, and durability, carbon composites have found hundreds of applications across manufacturing sectors. These materials are typically formulated with carbon fibers and polymer matrix to create a lightweight and very strong material. The strength and other properties of carbon fiber composites are comparable to traditional metals and metal alloys used in automotive, aerospace, maritime, military equipment, medical equipment, and many other manufacturing sectors.

What are carbon composites?

Normally, two ingredients are required to form a carbon composite. Carbon fibers and polymer matrix. The purpose of the polymer matrix is to bind the layers of carbon fiber tightly. The resulting composite possesses high tensile strength. However, the composite remains lightweight and shows various positive properties like good thermal and electrical conductivity, high corrosion resistance, and high structural integrity.

Carbon fibers, the base component of carbon composites, are derived from organic polymers. Once embedded in a matrix like epoxy, polyester, vinyl ester, polyamide, and polycarbonate, the carbon fibers form an interlocked structure with the above-mentioned properties.

Why are carbon composites so important in manufacturing sectors?

Manufacturers in different sectors like automotive and aerospace were looking for lightweight materials that would be strong and durable. Traditional materials like steel are strong but heavy. Aluminum alloys later solved many problems of the manufacturers but carbon composites are lighter than aluminium alloys also. Thus the limitations of steel and aluminum are overcome in several instances with the help of carbon fiber composites.

• The density of carbon fiber composites remains within 1.5 – 2.0 gm/cm3 whereas the density of aluminum is 2.7gm/cm3 and steel 7.85 gm/cm3.
• The strength-to-weight ratio of carbon composites is very high whereas the strength-to-weight ratio of aluminum is moderate and steel is better than aluminum.
• The corrosion resistance of carbon fiber composites is unmatched in the industry.

These materials have high fatigue resistance, high structural integrity, and impressive durability, making them the first preference for manufacturers in many aspects of product designs. Remarkable breakthroughs have been achieved in sports cars, sports motorcycles, luxury cars, spacecraft, satellites, computer hardware, medical prosthetics, sports goods, and hundreds of other products manufacturing.

Carbon composites are extensively customizable for improving performance, enhancing fuel efficiency, and reducing the weight of the final units like vehicles, airplanes, rockets, railway parts, etc.

Key applications of carbon composites

1. Aerospace: The aerospace industry is the earliest adopter of advanced composite materials. Aircraft manufacturers use it to reduce the weight of the places, thereby improving fuel efficiency and sustainability.
2. Automotive industry: Lighter vehicles use less fuel, run faster, and easy to control. Luxury and sports car manufacturers use carbon composites in their structural elements and body panels. The manufacturers of EVs are immensely benefitted from the introduction of these materials. RockmanAC is one of the top international suppliers of advanced composite parts and components for luxury cars, sports cars, high-end motorcycles, and EVs.
3. Medical industry: The medical industry has immensely benefited from carbon fiber materials. Hundreds of different kinds of medical devices and implants like prosthetic limbs are now made from carbon composites. Carbon composites are radiolucent materials which means they do not interfere with MRIs or X-rays. This special property makes them suitable for designing imaging machinery.
4. Renewable energy: Today, wind turbine blades are manufactured with composite materials. Carbon composites are lighter and more durable, enabling larger blades that can capture more wind wind. Moreover, these composite materials can easily withstand harsh weather conditions which is another advantage of renewable energy generating companies.

Besides, several other company sectors like maritime, railway, sports gods, military equipment, and railway equipment also benefit from this wonderful material. With unique properties, carbon composites are reformatting manufacturing methods and redefining industry standards.