What is carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber is a relatively new type of high strength material that is a form of graphite. Not only is carbon fiber exceptionally strong, it is also very rigid (it has a minimum

amount of deflection under load), it is exceedingly light compared to other materials (it can have many times the strength of steel and still be only a small fraction of the weight), plus it also has many other desirable properties such as: x-ray permeability, low thermal expansion (unlike many other substances, carbon fiber stays the same shape and size even at temperature extremes), it is very tough, and has high vibration dampening abilities.

As a definition carbon fibers are any fibers that are made up of 90% or greater carbon.

Click the link at right table  to view a table from http://www.engr.utk.edu/mse/pages/Textiles/CARBON%20FIBERS.htm that shows carbon fiber’s characteristics and corresponding applications that demand those properties.

Most often carbon fiber is used as a part composite (this link will take you out of my site) in CRP and CFRP (carbon reinforced plastic, and carbon fiber reinforced plastic, respectively), where the fibers have been woven into a sheet or cloth, then bonded together most often using resins (high tech glue), and then hardened usually by heat treating. Here is a picture of a piece of CFRP that has been formed (and hardened) into a rear fender for a motorcycle. CFRPs are used in many other fields including the automotive industry and sports (tennis, golf, etc).

Carbon nanotubes which are very similar to carbon fiber, show promising applications for the computer and space industries. While carbon fibers are made from graphite sheets that are jumbled together, carbon nanotubes are formed by individual graphite sheets that have been rolled back on themselves to form small tubes. Because they are formed by single sheets of carbon (graphite) they are significantly smaller than even single carbon fiber filaments.