Carbon experts please

tintin40

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What's the difference between these carbons?
3K Carbon
UD Carbon
Spikey Carbon

Thanks
 
UD Carbon was the one with the curly hair.
the-three-stooges-1.jpg


hth :p
 
Looks to be type of weave/number of strands (per mat?)

And i think spikey is a brand? Or again, could be type of strand.

And:

There are several, several types of carbon fibre on the market.
There are different grades, and different weaves with different tensil strengths.
CF is weighted by by the "k" size of the fiber. The designation "k" stands for 1,000 filaments, so a "1k" carbon fiber has 1,000 filaments. A "3k" carbon fiber has 3,000 filaments in it; a "6k" carbon fiber has 6,000 filaments in it, and so on...
Since each filament adds more strength and also weight to a "fiber", if you need more of weight or strength, just go up in fiber size, ie: A "3k" carbon fiber has 3-times the filament count of a "1k", 3-times the actual tensile strength, and 3-times the actual weight per given linear length of fibers. So, you would use a 3k carbon fiber instead of a 1k, if you found that a 1k fiber in a weave had too little strength.

There absolutely are differences in carbon constructions and molds.
There is uni-directional, and bi-directional (no jokes..now : **) weaves of CF
Knowing which bike company uses what grade, weave, and mold will nearly be impossible for sure. They can state whatever they want, but you will not know for certain.
If you think there is no difference in CF, you may be mistaken...

Here are just a few examples of the specs and composition of CF

Carbon Assay is the percentage of actual carbon content in fiber.
Denier is the textile term for mass per unit length. Denier is the wieght in grams per 9000 meters of material.

Denier Count is the width/Across direction fiber count.

Fiber Count is the lengthwise direction fiber count.

Interlaminar Shear Strength is the shear strength between layers of composite sheets or plys. Force needed to pull apart two or more layers.
Matrix Composite is the same definition as composite, but specifically intended as fiber and resin based composites.

Alot of CF is actually a mix of Silica or glass fibres, CSC. The glass fibre is used as a filling between layers of Carbon, this method of construction allows us to utilise the excellent strength and stiffness properties of Carbon fibre at the more critical outside surfaces of the part, whilst using the superior toughness and lower cost glass fibre as the centre to the sandwich. it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between pure CF and a mix. Then there is the forming processes...there are numerous methods for construction of carbon-fiber components including vacuum bagging, autoclave, and pre-preg materials, the vast majority of the carbon-fiber construction used in the consumer market is similar to the manufacturing wet lay-up method.

Yikes! There are so many variables to CF construction. It is doubtful that any product, from bikes to tennis racquets are pure CF. Ahhh, nothing is ever as simple as seems....eh?
 
The K refers to the number of strands of carbon in each tow, so 3K means 3000, 6K is 6000 etc. UD means uni directional. Bobbins of fibre are placed on a creel and fed in to a machine through a comb, keeping it in one direction, hence UD. It is then fed through various heated nips, sandwiched between two papers that have a resin coating, and a sheet of UD prepreg comes out the other end. The other method is to dip carbon fabric, usually with a non UD weave (criss cross weave) in a bath of resin. Spikey carbon, i dont know, and i work with a couple of hundred different fibres. Hope that helps.
 
Thanks chaps. Has cleared it up. Now just have to choose which finish

:D
 
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