What are the forms of carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber has become the choice of lightweight materials in many fields because of its advantages of light weight, high strength, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, dimensional stability, and low creep. At present, there are many forms of carbon fiber in the market. This article will take you to understand.

1. Carbon fiber precursor: The diameter of carbon fiber precursor is very small, only about 1/20 of that of human hair; but compared with traditional structural materials such as steel and aluminum alloy, its strength advantage is very obvious. Because the carbon fiber precursor is made at high temperature, its high temperature resistance is also very good. The carbon fiber precursor can generally be combined to form a carbon fiber tow. The specifications of the carbon fiber tow are divided into large tow and small tow. The root of the division is The number of carbon fiber strands, such as 1K, 3K, 6K, 12K, 24K, and 48K, etc., K stands for thousands, and a cluster of carbon fiber strands can contain thousands of carbon fiber strands. The larger the number of raw filaments, the larger the tow, and vice versa.

2. Carbon fiber cloth: Carbon fiber cloth is made of carbon fiber, also known as carbon fiber cloth, carbon fiber prepreg, carbon fiber tape, etc. Carbon fiber cloth is usually used for tensile, shear and seismic reinforcement of structural parts. Generally, 12k carbon fiber filament is used for production. With the continuous development of the carbon fiber industry, carbon fiber cloth is used in more and more enterprises and industries.

3. Carbon fiber prepreg: Carbon fiber yarn, epoxy resin, release paper and other carbon fibers are processed into carbon fiber prepreg after being processed by coating, hot pressing, cooling, film coating, and coiling. Carbon fiber prepregs are usually used to make carbon fiber products, so there are many application cases in the military and civilian fields.

4. Chopped carbon fiber: Chopped carbon fiber is made by cutting carbon fiber filament. Its mechanical properties mainly depend on the performance of carbon fiber filament. Short fiber has the advantages of uniform dispersion, various feeding methods, and simple process. It can be used in Special areas where carbon fiber filaments are not suitable.