I saw this seat and I was wondering what kind of carbon is the strip on the middle of the back seat. Never saw something like that.
Looks like 12k spread tow fabric to me. I’ve used it before and it can be a pain to work with, but it has a number of benefits in certain applications. For that seat, it just looks cool.
What are the benefits of this?
it looks cool!
but the benefits of that material… very thin, light, strong. I’m betting also expensive and can be a pain for complex curvatures.
Yeah, being a very thin fabric it has less tendency to show pinholes at the intersection of tows. I really like that feature. It also has less distortion in the fiber where it weaves over/under a thinner bundle. This can increase stiffness in certain parts. The downsides are that its very delicate when handled and placed in the mold. Very easy to muck up the weave or have the pattern shift. I haven’t tried it on any contoured surfaces, but I doubt it conforms well.
Textreme builds one that I have worked with. INFO PAGE
I had really good luck with the material using clear gel on the surface and infusing a VE resin through it. I bought some material in small batches from Composite Envisions a while back and had a good experience. HERE is where you can find their supply of Textreme. Good luck!
Carbon/Zylon hybrid - Zylon is advertized as 30% more tear resistant than Kevlar and was used on the Mars Lander
Fat tow carbon
#1, did you have any involvement in building that wheelchair? very cool!
#2, That seat pan looks like 12k spread tow prepreg. Epic aircraft and Lancair both use it in my neck of the woods.
Central,
Yes, the cushion base in that photo is a component on one of several full carbon fiber wheelchairs that I built.
I didn’t use prepreg for that part. I can’t remember which supplier I got the 12k spread tow fabric from, but the part was made with resin transfer (infusion).
I believe that seat was made by andygtt or something similar. Hes on here and also talkcomposites.com He can get you all the info on that
I was curious about that material. Never saw anything like that.
Thanks guys for all the input.