Why Is Carbon Fiber So Expensive?

[krebs303]

Why Is Carbon Fiber So Expensive?
When carbon fiber was first trotted out in solid rocket motor cases and tanks in the 1960s, it was poised to not only take on fiberglass, but also a whole host of other materials.

What happened?

50 years later it's still an exotic material. Sure, Batman's got it in his suit, expensive cars feature smatterings of it in their dashboards and performance parts, but at $10 a pound on the low end, it's still too pricy for wide-scale deployment. We've been using this stuff for decades. Where's our materials science Moore's Law to make this stuff cheap? Why is this stuff still so expensive?

 

[DirtyWorks]

Why Is Carbon Fiber So Expensive?

Fun story, but in bicycle industry terms, carbon product has gotten far cheaper.

Unlike alloys, the carbon bike frame assembly process has gotten much cheaper and faster. On the alloy side, the process can't get any more simplified.

Consumers in the U.S. typically pay more for carbon because they are willing to pay more. Carbon products tend to carry far greater advertising costs to justify the high price. That is the power of effective Marketing.

 

[User Guide]

Its not the carbon itself thats expensive(unless high spec stuff).Its the tooling and labour hence why is much cheaper on the low end in china, as labour takes a bigger slice of cost.
Sigmatex in the UK started 3D weaving of carbon last year btw, is cool as ****.

 

[krebs303]

Oops not the article I thought it was

I will search for it.

Does the forum have a maximum age limit? Perhaps a competency test for us seniors to make sure we are still cognizant.

 

[troylee]

edited by mod (spam)