The Amazing History of Versatile Carbon Fiber Composites

Carbon fiber is a very useful, versatile, and sleek composite material. It is specially used in manufacturing a huge range of high-value and high-performance applications. Carbon fiber is globally branded as a strong and resilient material. From costly automobiles, sports goods, aerospace parts, to medical components, you can find carbon fiber is used almost in every industry. 

Thanks to modern technology, carbon fiber manufacturing has become cost-effective and this has led to an increase in usage across various industries. Many businesses are now actively involved in composite technology associated with carbon fibers. 

Early forms of Carbon Fibers 

• It is essential to know the evolutionary history of this material. 
• Carbon fibers have been around for more than 150 years, the very earliest forms of this composite were very different from what it is today. 
• In the 18^th century, an individual named Joseph Wilson Swam was the first person who tested his techniques with carbon filament material. 
• Sir Thomas Edison in the year 1879 used this filament to make the first electrical lightbulb. 
• During this time, the fine carbon filaments were made with the help of other materials such as bamboo and cotton. 
• They were carbonized in a process known as pyrolysis to form the early form of carbon fiber filaments.  
• This was just the start of its journey. But, initially, carbon filaments were replaced by tungsten wire. 
• And carbon fiber became obsolete for many decades together. 
• The lone application of carbon fiber during this period was in the United States Navy, wherein the ships used lightbulbs made with carbon fiber filaments. 
• The main reason for choosing carbon over tungsten was due to its superior ability at handling ships’ vibratory movements. 
• During the period of 1940 and 1950, carbon fiber was overlooked and largely ignored as it was considered to have poor mechanical properties. 
• However, in the year 1958, all this changed and carbon fiber got a new makeover. 

Through the 50s and the 70s Decades

When World War II ended carbonized rayons made from carbon fibers were used to make military clothing. This led to more developments and experiments that totally transformed the role of carbon fiber in the world market.

During the 1950s period, carbon fibers were produced with a petroleum base. When rayon strands were heated along with argon, they started to form an arc shape furnace.

This process yielded only 20% carbon and was thought to be inefficient and costly. Later, this discovery caused widespread research into novel ways of producing carbon fibers. 

In the late 60s, countries such as the UK, USA, and Japan started experimenting with new production ways to get carbon fiber material. Manufacturers made significant developments in this field and soon developed a ‘hot-stretching’ process to develop new rayon-based carbon fiber production. It involved stretching the rayon yarn to make tougher fibers via heating. 

Japan progressed in its findings by developing a method that yielded quality 55% carbon fibers made from PAN or synthetic polyacrylonitrile. Soon, the UK also made good headway in the production of good quality carbon fibers. UK manufacturers designed carbon fiber compressor blades used for brand new jet engine parts. 

The 1970s and Preceding Years 

In the 70s decade, PAN-based production procedures gained momentum and soon PAN became the better alternative to rayon as the primary source material for producing carbon fibers. And after this period, carbon fiber production rolled off successfully producing the finest carbon fiber yarns with almost 95% carbon in them.

This new version of carbon fiber composites provided impressive tensile strength and superelasticity. Production costs were reduced as manufacturing processes were improved. Engineers in the 90s decade dived further into research and came up with new methods and carbon fiber applications. In the early 2000 carbon fiber had created a strong market niche for itself in today’s industries. 

Traditional Usage of Carbon Fiber

The complex history of carbon fiber indicates that the material has been around for a long time. Yet, production on a bigger scale was commenced only after 1960. Modern technology helped manufacturers of key industries to tap into its potential qualities and use it accordingly. 

Some industrial sectors that started using carbon fiber components are as follows:

Military

The U.S. military and navy base made extensive use of incandescent lightbulbs that were charged with carbon fiber filaments. It was the first few industries to accept carbon fibers due to their superior resistant qualities.

The U.S. military also provided substantial funds into the research work done by Union Carbide to find more about rayon-based carbon components. When stronger fibers were developed, the military realized its potential and used it in a bigger capacity. 

Aerospace

This industry also adopted carbon components in huge quantities. From Rolls Royce carbon blades to replacing metals like titanium, carbon fibers quickly gained prominent status as a popular material that could be used in many applications. The main feature of carbon fiber was its superiority in terms of strength-to-weight ratio as compared to other common metals. 

Sports Goods

The researchers from the UK in the 1960s decade helped develop PAN-based carbon technology. This entailed superior strength as compared to weight features and thousands of manufacturers capitalized on this fact to produce sports products on a large scale such as tennis rackets, skiing boards, golf clubs, and many more. 

Modern usage of carbon fibers has evolved further lowering production costs and minimizing the processing time. The latest technology involves autoclave composites to produce the finest quality of CFRP or carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite products mainly used in the aviation industry.

During this process, prepreg laminas are consolidated via a uniform pressure and temperature technique to acquire a high-end carbon material. 

It is stated that the futuristic carbon fiber composites can reduce the weight of a car by almost 50 percent and enhance its fuel efficiency levels by 35 percent.

Advances in carbon fiber research can help manufacturers to boost the performance of power transmission lines, turbine wind blades, and construction of sustainable structures amongst others.