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The physics of carbon fibers
Plenty of people know composites reinforced with carbon fibers as a material commonly referred to as carbon. It is a very durable material, often used in professional sports equipment. In appearance it resembles a plain or diagonal weave checkerboard. That’s not everything, however, hiding behind this incredible engineering material.
The polymer composite reinforced with carbon fibers (because that’s the professional name of carbon) consists of at least two components – resin and carbon fibers as in the name. Light composites like carbon utilize epoxy resins. A manufacturer of composite products has a task of selecting the kind of resin for their products that will make the component adapted to working at the adequate temperature and resistant to specific states of tension, i.e. cyclical impacts that are present in skiing pads. The second component that contributes to the “magic” of this type of composites is carbon fibers. Although without resin there would be no resistance whatsoever, it is the fibers that give this material such unique mechanical properties. The patterned surface (so-called plain or twill) is a fabric that consists of rovings that cross at right angles. Each roving is a collection of fibers running in the same direction. When it comes to the 3K fabric, it means that each strip visible in the structure consists of 3,000 carbon fibers that are 10 times thinner than human hair.
It is common for carbon (carbon composite) to be mistaken for traditional plastic reinforced with carbon fibers. It is a completely different material, however, coated not with resin but with a type of plastic, like ABS, and the fibers are only few mm long, which makes the durability of these elements significantly lower than that of real carbon. It is also a good place to mention a trick by manufacturers who call their products carbon, while in reality they are made of plastic called PC (poly-carbonate), and apply graphic design resembling a checkerboard on traditional plastic surfaces.
The durability is largely impacted by the fiber integrity and the direction it is laid in. When planning a manufacturing process, an incredibly important stage is to ensure that the fibers in the composite are laid in a way that provides their integrity at the biggest possible length so that they don’t have to be cut through, or simply that they are as long as possible. It makes the material much more rigid and durable. The mechanical properties of composite elements are modeled by the choice of direction the fibers are laid in. That’s why an element of the same dimensions might be elastic in one case while very rigid in another. It all depends on the intended purpose of the product. When it comes to skiing pads, the fibers are laid in a way that provides maximum rigidity of a pad upon hitting a pole and prevents it from bending, as it leads to losing valuable time. The fibers in the Metamorphose Raptor pads are laid in a way that protects the skier from feeling the results of an impact when going down, which is often the case when using elastic plastic pads. Another incredibly important advantage of carbon is its weight – it’s a material of incredibly low density, which makes durable pads so lightweight that the skier won’t even notice they’re wearing them!
