Next Generation Carbon Fibre Materials
Wen-Fang Hwang from Spirit Aerosystems reveals how the use of carbon nanotube based precursors will be used to create the next generation of carbon fibre materials. These materials have elastic moduli of greater then 500GPa, well up on the 300GPa of existing materials. A key factor of his processing technology is it will use equipment, so plants currently geared up to produce carbon fibre from polyacrylonitrile or PAN, will be able to use this new chemistry with no modification.
He also sees possible collaboration between Spirit Aerosystems and the newly established ACFRF, Australian Carbon Fibre Research Facility.
These next generation carbon fibres will no doubt find application in aircraft, where their high strength and light weight properties will result in more fuel efficient aircraft.
This interview was recorded at the Carbon Fibre - Future Directions conference, held in Geelong Australia and organised by VCAMM and Deakin University.
Run time - 9:43min
Next Generation Carbon Fibres