Re: [ATM] carbon fiber composite fabrication

[Dominic-Luc Webb <dlwebb@canit.se>]

On Fri, 13 Jul 2007, William Marriott wrote:

> For the 20" RC telescope, I will be using a lot of
> carbon fiber componets, a lot of which I will have to
> fabricate myself.
>
> Who on this list have worked with this material?  I
> would love to find our your experiences with this.
>
> Regards
>
> Bill Marriott


I have, but only on a micro scale back when it was still pretty
new material and hard to come by (about 10 years ago). The fibers
themselves are a challenge to handle. They weigh next to nothing
and fly away with the slightest wind. At the time, I had to handle
discrete fibers manually. You really do not want to mess with this.
I have wondered if it ever became available as rolls of mesh,
similar to fiberglass (company said this would someday happen,
Ameco???). That would be quite desirable. I do get some hits when
I search for "carbon fiber mesh", so there is hope.

Along this general lines, there is something called "carbon fiber
paper" and related carbon hybrids (carbon fiber plus glass fiber,
etc). It might be worthwhile to hunt down some material properties
before committing.

Dominic

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