History of Carbon Fibre

Miscellaneous automotive applications 9

3.0 USE OF CARBON FIBRE IN MEDICAL INDUSTRY 10

Scientific and medical electrode applications 12

Lighter wing and body construction 14

Towards being smaller and lighter, in general 21

Carbon fibers were discovered in the late 1800s when Thomas Edison was testing materials to use as a filament in the first incandescent light bulb. In one of those experiments, he baked a cotton thread to produce a pure carbon fiber. This was the breakthrough he needed to make electric lighting both practical and affordable. A similarly-oriented process was developed nearly a century later to produce carbon fibers from synthetic fibers. Commercial production of these "graphite" carbon fibers in the 1960s provided the high-strength and lightweight materials needed for use in military aircraft and in the space program. It remains unfortunate that in recent decades, the high cost of these synthetic carbon fibers has limited their viability to aircraft components, sporting goods and specialty products for cr

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ites would also allow for greater molding efficiencies. The potential result: simplified production, lighter cars and greater overall cost effectiveness. Carbon fiber technology also offers excellent electrical conductivity, meaning plastic parts could be electro-statically painted more cost-effectively than using the traditional multi-stage process. Painting plastics has always been a serious auto industry challenge, especially when compared to metal. Newer and better manufacturing processes that cost less. Strong, lightweight cars that consume less fuel 3.0 USE OF CARBON FIBRE IN MEDICAL INDUSTRY Carbon and graphite fibers are rigid materials that are resistant to stretching and compression forces. They are also chemically inert thus making them highly suitable for medical applications such as those involving hip and knee ligament replacements (Landis, p. 32). Prosthetics Replacing the various parts of the human body with synthetic alternatives (prostheses) is not as simple as one would imagine. Those issues that are associated with the physical interaction of foreign objects with the chemistry of the body is a big design consideration, as mentioned above. However, what most people do not realize is how much mechanical
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Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)