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any body know about cf molding? i am getting sheets in varying thicknesses, is it lighter than alu? i know it’s damn hard but when heated can be bent to shape.
CF is not “molded”, it needs to be manufactured into the complex shape you want, or just into plain flat sheets.
To make it, you need a mold which is laid with the fibre. Then you inject (“impregnate”) the fibre with liquid dope under high pressure and high temperature. Its a lot like fibre-glassing, except you need an oven big enough to fit your mold into – check out the size of a Formula One workshop’s oven!!
Once cured into the shape of the mold, there is nothing else you can do to shape it. You can cut it, sand it, saw it etc, but you can’t thereafter reshape it with heat or pressure.
Contrary to popular myth, CF is not “strong” per se. Its structurally very stiff in certain dimensions, but it is also brittle and can crack/break if you stress it wrongly.
And most mythical of all… CF does *not* have a visible fancy weave pattern! The real graphite threads are BLACK! The fancy pattern you see on the top is merely printed on a plastic laminate, to give you what you’re expecting. 🙂
Be careful too… remember its carbon fibres.
1) when cutting/sanding, you must have RESPIRATORY PROTECTION.
People who don’t will die a long painful death like Smokers!
2) CF conducts electricity… fibreglass doesn’t.
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