white carbon fiber?

[eng1234]

I have just heard about a few company's using white carbon fiber. I have not actually seen the final parts, but was curious if someome else has used this before?

I familiar with using uni-directional pre-preg and woven carbon to build products, but not white carbon? Is this just an aesthetic thing like copper or nickel coated carbon? Any increased strength properties?

 

[HDS]

Most of the guys doing "white carbon" or red carbon or what ever are using fiber glass and a colored or clear matrix. Often it is not even a composite with a fiber and matrix but just a decoration of some kind.

 

[stimpee]

I have not heard of "white", but I know that most of the commercially available "colored" carbon uses alternative weave of carbon and Dyed kevlar. The can be had off the shelf in red, blue, and yellow.

Steve

 

[kognition]

White CF? I don't know anything about it, but it doesn't sound
like a logical product to manufacture. White pigment can be used in your epoxy to make your work come out opaque or white.
But the white CF i have never seen nor heard about.

 

[klaas2]

i know it
its a product of hexcel
it carbon with glass
then they burn a alu layer on it

it not for stenght its for looks

you see it more and more in sporting goods

 

[kognition]

Are you talking about Texallium? The alluminum coated glass?

Also, i was wondering if anyone has knowledge about what can be done to annodize texallium? I recently had some kevlar custom dyed for me and it SUCKED! It started coming off in the epoxy as i was wetting the fabric.

 

[klaas2]

what do yo mean about what can be done to annodize texalium
?????????????????

yes dyed kevlar indeed sucks

 

[kognition]

Right, well.... its just an idea that i am wondering about.
If you think about what an annodized finish looks like, very brilliant and has a good ability to catch light well off the surface. Then annodizing alluminum coated glass might be considered ie: Texallium. From a purely cosmetic POV. I do not know too much about annodizing, and maybe the strands would be too thin to even bother with. But really need a better option besides the dyed kevlar. It just cannot hold the dye on without mucking up
my epoxy.

 

[daleroe]

White carbon? By very nature carbon is black. It sounds like specrta fiber. Its white, strong and light. It has a low coefficent of friction and a low melting point. Some of its everyday uses are fishing line and performance kite string.

 

[kognition]

Soller Composites has white carbon fiber for about $6 a yd.
sollercomposites.com

 

[CompositeGeek]

Kognition,
That is not carbon it is colored e-glass. There ain't no setch animal as white carbon. Not possible given physical properties of carbon. You can have clear carbon. Thats a diamond.
Everything else is some kind of dye job or coating that makes the prepreg white.

Composites and Airplanes - what was I thinking?

There are gremlins in the autoclave!

 

[kenvlach]

kognition,
Still interested in anodizing & dyeing Texalium?

From

http://www.hexcel.com/NR/rdonlyres/5C3A2F5A-FB48-4B20-8B21-31D3F2B47C3E/0/hexcel_industrialA4.pdf

it is available in 50 inch wide woven fabric. The fiber is aluminized E-glass (evaporated Al), up to 0.20 mm total diameter. If the aluminum coating is thick enough, can probably use a modified coil anodizing process. Usually need about 10 microns of anodize for good dyeing (as little as 5 for a few colors or pastel shades), so I suspect the Al coating is too thin.

Can anyone tell me or figure out the Al coating thickness of the Texalium?

 

[CompositeGeek]

kog,
i believe the aluminum it is measured in microns too.
I have not seen anyone attempt to anodize it. Seems like you could as long as there was enough aluminum to take the treatment. Of course you would only be able to do that to a dry fabric not a prepreg.

Composites and Airplanes - what was I thinking?

There are gremlins in the autoclave!

 

[dcstang]

It is indeed Texallium, aluminum coated glass, a bike company from Italy touted their parts as "white carbon" and the name kind of took off from there.