We have all seen carbon fiber in the auto industry used to construct body panels, and other parts for tuner and race cars. But did you know that the carbon fiber used on inexpensive tuner car parts has little to do with that used on jet fighters and race cars.
For simplicity I will explain the differences in general terms. This can get pretty scientific and boring. So I’ll keep it simple. The carbon fibers used to create the interwoven CF fabric comes from 2 very different sources and processed in 2 distinctly different ways. One process makes a very high quality high tensile strength fiber, and the other process more flexible cf with less tensile strength.
The high quality high tensile strength CF get’s made into pre-preg cf sheets. This product is often called “dry carbon”. The sheets of woven fiber are already impregnated with an appropriate amount of resin to cure the product into a molded form when heated. Pre-preg creates an incredibly strong and lightweight product.
The process for making a pre-preg CF part is to apply pre-preg CF into a mold. The mold is then vacuum bagged to remove all air bubbles from the laminated piece, and then placed in an autoclave and heated to harden the CF.
What we generally see in the auto industry are CF reinforced fiberglass pieces which is simply a fiberglass part being covered in a veneer of carbon fiber cloth and then a resin applied to harden the laminate. Low modulus carbon fiber does not come pre-impregnated with resin. It comes like a textile sheet on a roll. It is dry. The carbon fiber in this case is not structural. The fiberglass and polyester resin are the supporting structure. The CF is simply a covering for visual reasons. The resins used to cure the fiberglass are heavy and remove any weight savings from using CF in the first place.
How can you tell pre-preg CF from the fake? That’s easy. A dry CF hood for a 350Z will cost you approx $2000. A CF veneer hood will cost you about $500. The pre-preg CF has a low gloss hazy finish. The veneer hood will have a high gloss finish. It is true that a pre-preg CF can be finished with an automotive clear coat to make it look shiny, but they usually aren’t. A pre-preg CF piece will often weigh ¼ of what the fiberglass and cf hood weigh. Yeah… ¼ That’s how light it is!
Who needs pre-preg CF? Well no one except for true competitive race cars. It’s cost is prohibitive for anyone except Le Mans or Formula 1 cars for the few seconds you can shave from a lap time from using pre-preg CF pieces. Is it baller status? Damn Straight!
For simplicity I will explain the differences in general terms. This can get pretty scientific and boring. So I’ll keep it simple. The carbon fibers used to create the interwoven CF fabric comes from 2 very different sources and processed in 2 distinctly different ways. One process makes a very high quality high tensile strength fiber, and the other process more flexible cf with less tensile strength.
The high quality high tensile strength CF get’s made into pre-preg cf sheets. This product is often called “dry carbon”. The sheets of woven fiber are already impregnated with an appropriate amount of resin to cure the product into a molded form when heated. Pre-preg creates an incredibly strong and lightweight product.
The process for making a pre-preg CF part is to apply pre-preg CF into a mold. The mold is then vacuum bagged to remove all air bubbles from the laminated piece, and then placed in an autoclave and heated to harden the CF.
What we generally see in the auto industry are CF reinforced fiberglass pieces which is simply a fiberglass part being covered in a veneer of carbon fiber cloth and then a resin applied to harden the laminate. Low modulus carbon fiber does not come pre-impregnated with resin. It comes like a textile sheet on a roll. It is dry. The carbon fiber in this case is not structural. The fiberglass and polyester resin are the supporting structure. The CF is simply a covering for visual reasons. The resins used to cure the fiberglass are heavy and remove any weight savings from using CF in the first place.
How can you tell pre-preg CF from the fake? That’s easy. A dry CF hood for a 350Z will cost you approx $2000. A CF veneer hood will cost you about $500. The pre-preg CF has a low gloss hazy finish. The veneer hood will have a high gloss finish. It is true that a pre-preg CF can be finished with an automotive clear coat to make it look shiny, but they usually aren’t. A pre-preg CF piece will often weigh ¼ of what the fiberglass and cf hood weigh. Yeah… ¼ That’s how light it is!
Who needs pre-preg CF? Well no one except for true competitive race cars. It’s cost is prohibitive for anyone except Le Mans or Formula 1 cars for the few seconds you can shave from a lap time from using pre-preg CF pieces. Is it baller status? Damn Straight!
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