1.Product Description
Lighter weight 250gsm carbon fiber tape made using carbon fibers held together by lightweight glass cross-stitching. Carbon fiber tape in a lighter weight 250gsm fabric weight. Suitable for specifically aligned high strength reinforcement of composite laminates when combined with a suitable resin system, such as epoxy.
The minimal cross stitch results in negligible crimp of the carbon fibers but does help to facilitate wet-out, particularly in resin infusion processing where the cross stitch assists with resin flow through the tape.
The tape offers excellent conformity and drape but at the same time, the high quality stitching makes the tape perfectly stable and easy-to-handle. The tape is compatible with all standard resin systems including polyester, vinylester and epoxy resin although is ideally matched to epoxy resin owing to its high mechanical performance.
2.Technical Data Sheet
Weight and Dimensions
| Width |
50 |
mm |
| Thickness |
0.2 |
mm |
| Areal Weight |
250 |
g/m² |
Fabric Specification
| Colour |
Black |
| Fiber Orientation |
Unidirectional |
| Format |
Tape |
| Weave |
Unidirectional |
3.Advantages
- Unfinished edges are not prone to fraying and allow nearly seamless overlaying
- Plain weave for uniform stength in both directions
- Wets out quickly and easily
- Fatigue resistance for durable strength
- Excellent mechanical performance
- Low water absorption, high hydrothermal properties.
- Excellent chemical and solvent resistance
- Outstanding flame retardant performance
- Stable performance under unlimited storage at room temperature
4.Typical Uses
Carbon fiber tapes are referred to as tapes only for their width and appearance-they are not adhesive backed. Their unfinished edges offer easier handling and a clean, finished appearance. They are ideal for use in auto racing, aerospace, competition marine, and light industrial applications.
- Sporting equipment (skis, archery bow limbs etc.)
- Marine (yacht stringer reinforcement)
- Aerospace (wing spars etc.)
- Motorsport (aero wings, structural components)
- Pipe wrapping/reinforcement
5.Why use Unidirectional Reinforcement?
Working with unidirectional material allows targeted orientation of the fibers in the direction in which the load will be applied allowing composite structures to be manufactured with maximum strength at the minimum weight because all fibers in the laminate are being utilised as effectively as possible.
The limbs of an archery bow are an excellent example where all of the load is longitudinal, trying the 'bend' the limbs of the bow in just one direction. In this scenario, using a bi-directional material (such as woven carbon fiber cloth) would mean that half of the carbon reinforcement would effectively be useless because the fibers oriented at 90° to the direction of the load (in this case all the weft fibers) would offer no strength in the longitudinal direction at all. By using unidirectional carbon fiber, oriented length-ways down the limb, all of the carbon reinforcement would be contributing to the strength of the limb meaning that limbs using unidirectional reinforcement could be around half the weight as ones of the same strength made using a bi-directional reinforcement. Utilisation of none-crimped unidirectional carbon fiber would further enhance the mechanical performance of the limbs compared with conventional crimped unidirectional material.
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.
9.Can This Tape Be Bent Laterally?
Yes, it's quite a loose form and can be rolled laterally as well as curved and shaped longitudinally. However, because of its relatively loose form you would need to be careful not to break up the tape, causing the fibers to separate.
10.Can This Tape Be Used As A Heating Element In Heated Clothing?
Our Spread-Tow Ribbon is not designed to be used as a clothing heating element. It's true that passing an electrical current through any carbon fiber material will cause it to heat up but this is a long way from being a safe heating element for clothes.
11.Is This Carbon Tape Self Adhesive? Can I Stick It To The Outside Of An EPP R/C Plane? How Would I Bond It To The Foam?
No, this carbon fiber tape is not self adhesive; it's simply a dry woven carbon fiber tape.
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