Composites Classroom
Latest news from the Labs:
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Demand for carbon fiber products continues to grow around the world. Here at Rock West Composites, we are growing as well. We just released a new line of advanced carbon fiber panels for architectural and interior design. At any rate, not all carbon fiber products are what they purport to be. For example, you can purchase a carbon fiber wrap for your car. But a wrap is not the real thing. A car wrap is nothing more than a set of printed vinyl panels that offer the appearance of something other than what your car normally looks like. Texas drivers can enhance their carbon fiber wraps with brand-new license plates printed to look like carbon fiber. Again, we are talking fakes here; the plates are not made of genuine carbon fiber. Instead, they are printed to look like it. The Look Is Very Marketable For the record, we do not object to car wraps and license plates that mimic the look of carbon fiber. We get the fact that the look is very marketable. People see something that appears Read more...
Demand for carbon fiber products continues to grow around the world. Here at Rock West Composites, we are growing as well. We just released a new line of advanced carbon fiber panels for architectural and interior design. At any rate, not all carbon fiber products are what they purport to be. For example, you can purchase a carbon fiber wrap for your car. But a wrap is not the real thing. A car wrap is nothing more than a set of printed vinyl panels that offer the appearance of something other than what your car normally looks like. Texas drivers can enhance their carbon fiber wraps with
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Regular readers of our blog know that cost is a prohibitive factor for many companies that would like to transition to composite materials. If they cannot justify a higher price point, they cannot justify the cost of manufacturing with composites. Luggage manufacturing is a great example. But now, manufacturers are making composite luggage cheaper. Luggage seems like a perfect venue for composites such as glass and carbon fiber. Luggage has to be tough enough to withstand the rigors of travel but light enough to handle with little or moderate effort. Carbon fiber is tough, resilient, and
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Among the hottest topics in the composites industry right now are material safety and recycling potential. As such, we are happy to learn that researchers in Korea have developed a safer carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) that is also more easily recycled. Their research will undoubtedly influence carbon fiber product development in the years to come. Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) began their work with the premise that CFRPs need to be more flame retardant even in the absence of halogen. Until a few years ago, halogen was the go-to material for making
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The world would probably be surprised to learn how many scientific discoveries are the result of scientists 'playing with their toys'. For example, what we now know as radioactivity was discovered by accident. It occurred in the late 1800s when a scientist by the name of Henri Becquerel packed up his primitive imaging equipment on a cloudy day. Several days later, he retrieved a crystal he had been using in his earlier experiments and noticed that the image burned onto it had changed. He figured out that the fogged image he was seeing was the result of radioactivity. What
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If you are an entrepreneur looking for a great idea for a startup, may we suggest you invest in learning how to fabricate with carbon fiber? Even though carbon fiber is not a new material, it has recently come into its own as a material for the masses. It is no longer the exclusive domain of the aerospace and defense sectors. Making the point is a June 21 story that appeared on the India West website. The story discusses 15 products that the author believes are better if manufactured using carbon fiber. It is interesting to note that most of the products are already available here in
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