01 advantages of carbon fiber pipe
In recent years, carbon fiber pipes have become more and more popular in many fields, such as automobiles, automation and industrial robots. What makes them stand out in the competition of metals such as aluminum or titanium?
Carbon fiber tube has high enough tensile strength to replace steel, titanium or aluminum in applications where weight is an important factor. Under the same strength, the density of carbon fiber composite is one third of that of steel. They are also corrosion resistant, can withstand high temperatures and have minimal thermal expansion. According to the specific design of carbon fiber tube, it can be rigid or flexible.
The main advantages of carbon fiber pipe include:
l High strength and stiffness
l Excellent fatigue resistance
l Dimensional stability: low CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion)
l Corrosion resistance
l X-ray transparency
2 types of carbon fiber pipes
Carbon fiber tubes can be designed to orient the fiber layer at different angles to make it suitable for specific applications. For example, the carbon fiber tube with 0 ° structural lamination has fibers arranged in a single direction, which can achieve linear strength and stiffness; They can resist bending, but they are easily crushed if impacted; Therefore, they are usually used for supporting structures. Carbon fiber tubes with 0 ° / 90 ° structural laminations have fibers aligned in both directions to better resist extrusion and distortion than tubes with 0 ° structural laminations.
Carbon fiber tubes can be customized.Therefore, using high-end technology and the most advanced technology, pipes of various shapes can be prepared, mainly including:
l Square carbon fiber tube
l Rectangular carbon fiber tube
l Hexagonal carbon fiber tube
l Oval carbon fiber tube
l Conical carbon fiber tube (diameter of one end is smaller than that of the other end)
03 processing of carbon fiber pipe
According to the processing method, carbon fiber pipes can be divided into: wound prepreg carbon fiber pipe, woven carbon fiber pipe, pultruded carbon fiber pipe, etc.
Winding prepreg carbon fiber tube:
winding prepreg carbon fiber tube is made by winding multi-layer twill fabric or unidirectional fabric carbon fiber prepreg on metal mold and then curing at high temperature. This type of carbon fiber tube is very suitable for applications requiring the highest bending stiffness and the lowest weight, such as automation, robots, telescopic rods and UAV components. In addition, these long bobbins can choose high modulus and ultra-high modulus carbon fibers, as well as outer fabrics, such as colored Kevlar fabrics.
Braided carbon fiber tube:
Braided carbon fiber tube is composed of carbon fiber braided fabric and unidirectional fabric. They have excellent torsional properties and compressive strength and are ideal for high torque applications. These carbon tubes are round, rectangular and square, which can be optimized axially or made of carbon fiber with higher modulus to increase bending stiffness.
Pultruded carbon fiber tube:
It is prepared by using carbon fiber (mostly 12K specification) and epoxy resin / vinyl resin through pultrusion molding process. The pultruded carbon fiber tube has different specifications such as square, circular and rectangular. The product schematic diagram is shown in the figure below.
04 typical application of carbon fiber pipe
Carbon fiber pipe is widely used in the field of automobile industry and bicycle. When carbon fiber pipe is used in automobile, motorcycle and bicycle, it can reduce the weight. The main applications include: exhaust system of sports bicycle or racing car, sports car suspension system with carbon fiber suspension spring, racing parts such as carbon fiber brake caliper or carbon fiber brake disc, light racing car and mountain bike frame, etc.
Other common applications of carbon fiber tubes include:
l Aerospace beams and spars
l telescope
l robotics
l Arrow axis
l Kayak paddle
l Remote control model
l Yacht
