1.Product Description
Spread Tow fabric (STF) is a unique fabric that increases performance as well as reduces laminate weight up to 20%. LK' proprietary spreading technology produces ultra-light plys by spreading carbon fiber tow into a thin, flat unidirectional tape which is then woven into light-weight composite fabrics.
Traditionally, tow used to weave composite fabrics is round or oblong in shape. By spreading the tow flat prior to weaving, the resulting fabric delivers the advantages of relatively lower crimp, increased smoothness and less-pronounced crossover defects.
As an example, a typical 200 gsm 3K Plain Weave 50" wide fabric will have about 23,000 places where the weave overlaps, also called a crimp. Each crimp in the fabric has a very small area where excess resin will accumulate.
2.Technical Data Sheet
Fabric Specification
| Colour |
Black |
|
| fiber Orientation |
0, 90 |
|
| Format |
Woven Fabric |
|
| fiber Type |
Carbon Fiber |
|
| Filament Count |
12k |
|
| Weave |
1 x 1 Plain |
|
| fiber Specifics |
LK T700 12k |
|
| Ends |
0.55 |
/cm |
| Picks |
0.56 |
cm |
Weight and Dimensions
| Width |
1000 |
mm |
| Thickness |
0.12 |
mm |
| Consolidated Thickness |
0.12 |
mm |
| Areal Weight |
88 |
g/m² |
fiber Properties
| Elongation at Break |
2.1 |
% |
| Filament Diameter |
7 |
µm |
| Tensile Strength |
4900 |
MPa |
| Tensile Modulus |
230 |
GPa |
General Properties
| Gross Weight |
0.16 |
kg |
| Brand |
LK |
3.Advantages
- Able to achieve lighter and more cost effective material than any 1k carbon fabric
- Reduce weight by 20% or more
- Easy to handle, cut and place
- Smoother and less porous surface finish than traditional woven fabrics. Spread-tow fabrics are quickly gaining popularity in advanced composites applications because of their incredibly flat profile which almost eliminates 'print through' or texturing of precise surfaces (such as aircraft wings)
- Unique, distinct and highly desirable appearance
- Less Epoxy needed which lowers Epoxy Costs
-
In addition to providing an incredibly flat and smooth surface finish, spread-tow fabric can also be used to give a unique appearance to a carbon fiber part. The very large pattern appearance of spread-tow fabric has already been adopted by some of the World's most prestigious car, boat and bicycle manufacturers to distinguish their top models
4.Typical Uses
Spread tow fabric finds applications in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and sports equipment, where weight reduction is paramount without compromising on performance. The thin and uniform distribution of carbon fibers allows for precise control over material orientation, ensuring optimal load-bearing capabilities along specific directions. This prepreg fabric simplifies the manufacturing process by incorporating a resin matrix, enabling easy handling and placement during component fabrication.
- Formula One & NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing
- Cryonic tanks, aircraft interior components or UAVs
- Hockey sticks and golf shafts
- Thin ply carbon diaphragms
5.Technical Details
Size of spread tow carbon fiber fabrics
A spread tow fabric is woven from tapes made of thousand of parallel fibers. If completely unsized, a dry spread tow fabric is delicate to manipulate and prone to damage. That's why various binding methods are available to keep the fibers in place. The size depends on the wanted ease of manipulation and the matrix compatibility.
| Sizing method |
Ease of manipulation |
| unsized fabric |
very delicate |
| sized fabric |
fiber manufacturer original sizing agent |
delicate |
| additional sizing agent / binder |
easier |
6.Shipping information
Restrictions
This product is not classed as dangerous goods for transport and can be shipped to all destinations without restriction.
Package Size
There are no package size restrictions or surcharges for this product.
---------- FAQ ----------
1.How Much Resin Will I Need To Wet Out Carbon Cloth Fabrics?
For wet-lay lamination you will use approximately the same weight of resin as the weight of the fabric. For example, with a 200gsm cloth, for 1 square metre you will have 200g of fabric and thus will need 200g of resin to wet it out, plus a small amount of wastage for the brush and mixing pot.
2.What Does The '3k' Mean?
'3k' is the filament count or tow size. It simply means that each 'bunch' of carbon fibers that this cloth is woven from is made up of 3000 individual carbon filaments. Bigger counts (6k, 12k etc.) means chunkier 'bunches' of carbon so chunkier fabrics.
3.What Typical Thickness Would Each Layer Be?
Thickness of any reinforcement is dependent on consoldation(how much it's 'squashed down'. For this reason we generally give out thickness figures for when the reiforcement is consoldated under vacuum (1bar); this seems like the most useful figure. For example,a 90gsm carbon,a single layer, compressed under vacuum, would be about 0.1mm thick. For a 200gsm carbon a single layer would be about 0.25mm thick. This is the number you see listed under 'thickness' in the specification table.
4.How Do I Go About Ordering A Sample Of This Carbon Fabric?
You can purchase a sample of our fabrics here.
5.How Much Resin Would Be Needed On Average Per Sqm?
Well, this depends entirely on what reinforcement you're laminating, speficically how thick and heavy it is. If you're laminating 5mm of carbon fiber you'll use a lot more resin that if you're laminating just 1mm of it. Fortunately though there a really quick rule to get a good estimate-simply add up the total weight of your reinforcement and you'll probably need the same weight in resin. This means that if you're laminating 5 layers of 200g carbon(so a total of 1000g of carbon) then you'll want about 1000g(i. e.1kg) of Epoxy Resin.If it was 2 layers of 450g glass then you'd need about 900g per square metre.
6. What Is The Maximum Service Temperature As I Want To Make An Engine Rocker Cover.
The carbon fabric itself will survive many hundreds of degrees and is not the limiting factor for almost all applications. The limiting factor will be the heat distortion temperature of the resin system you plan to laminate this fabric with.
An engine rocker/cam cover may easily be exposed to hot oils at around 120°C as well as heat from the exhaust which would be dependent on the engine configuration and level of tune. As such we would recommend considering using a higher temperature resin system.
7. Does The Carbon Have A Shelf Life?
For very critical applications, such as aerospace, even dry carbon fabrics will be 'lifed' due to very gradual degradation of the sizing on the fibers, however in practice, for most applications, the degradation is minimal and most users would consider dry fabric s to not have a shelf life when stored appropriately.
8.What Colour Is Carbon fiber?
All Carbon fibers are naturally charcoal black in colour.
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