You guys deserve all the success you get; these videos are some of the best marketing I've ever seen (and I've been in the business for decades). You're not simply selling a product. You're putting genuine effort into releasing detailed, helpful, well written, and well presented content that's available to everybody, not just your customers. You continue to demonstrate a sincere commitment to helping people improve themselves and their projects, and very few companies can say that. I know that there's a hell of a lot of work that goes into these videos, but to my mind, it's the perfect marketing tool for your particular product.
Thank you George, that's an extremely nice bit of feedback. You've pretty much summed up our entire approach to these videos, and business in general. We're sincere about what we do, try not to be greedy, try to give back and try to grow our business in this way. So far it seems to be working and we feel very privileged to be able to call this a job!
I'm haven't done anything with composites either, but after watching some of their videos it has gone from "this is some arcane mysterious stuff" to "I would screw up a few times, but it sounds fun to try and it may even work out eventually".
These videos are the gold standard (prepreg roll-wrapped gold) for consumer-oriented technical information. Thanks and Merry Christmas to Paul and the Easy Composites team.
apart from the result differences of metal and composites, you have hidden potential of an excellent teacher. teaching is not about having a PhD degree, it is all about making the things comprehendible for the students ! Bravo 👍👍👍
I have been binging these videos for days. My confidence in doing more complex geometry has skyrocketed. I was heartbroken to find you don't have a US storefront though. I hope it's coming.
WOW!!!!!!!!!! THIS WAS A FANTASTIC DETAILED EXAMINATION OF A VERY COMPLEX, AND MULTI-ASPECT ARRAY OF POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS, AND, THEIR STRENGTH CONSIDERATIONS. THANK YOU, VERY MUCH, PAUL, AND, EASY COMPOSITES!! MUCH APPRECIATED!!
I love the fact that you take selling your product to a whole new level by demonstrating improving the value of the materials. I would like to see more in depth information on fiberglass and Kevlar and the main differences between the polyester resins such as General use and mold making and if you just happen to have some extra time to go over the real differences about epoxies and polyester types of resins that can be used and why. Also can you get a us-based office.
Hi Matt, thanks for the comment and also for the topic suggestions, all of which I think would be interesting things to cover. Improving our US reach is certainly something we're working on; we'll start with improved options from the UK to US and then we plan to get stock 'on the ground' further down the line.
Thank you Peter. Appreciate the feedback. We weren't sure whether a 22 minute video about the construction of carbon fibre tubes would keep people's interest but we shouldn't underestimate the type of people who watch our channel!
I've gone down quite the rabbit hole over the past few weeks, listening and learning from Paul and the team at Easy Composites through these fantastic, informative videos. As an engineer, these videos naturally peaked my interest from the start. What initially was entertainment for me has quickly evolved into a list of parts I fully intend to start making out of carbon fiber for our business. I'm excited to start experimenting and I look forward to future videos! Thank you a ton for these videos, you've earned a loyal customer! Cheers from Oregon, USA.
You're more than welcome Zachary - as the saying goes, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life and we get such a kick out of making the videos and sharing our knowledge and experiences but the icing on the cake is when we get wonderful feedback like this as it makes us want to get back in the studio and get more content out 🙂
Slight correction, stainless steel has the same Young's modulus as mild steel. In fact, almost all types of steel have Young's moduli of 200±10 GPa. Heat treatment does not change this either.
Thanks for the comment and apologies for the error. You're quite right and in fact the original script just noted that stainless steel is considerably stronger (not stiffer) than mild steel. We're normally pretty good at spotting such mistakes but this one got through about 4 proof watches by several people so maybe we need to tighten our procedures! I think I've been able to do a rough-and-ready 'trim' on the video (which RUclips allows, until the video has had 100,000 views) so you'll soon see the line slightly clumsily removed.
You could redo these tests while using an 8mm bar as filler in each end to give a solid grip on each tube reducing the stress risers at the collet. This would focus the test to just the tube section between each collet and provide sufficient grip without crushing
Incredibly informative and I have to say the best channel for composites. I’d love to see a video on recreating plastic tabs for say mirror caps or other clip in components. Everything I’ve learned I’ve learned here and gave me to confidence to put into practice. Keep up the amazing videos
Your question is one that we get asked quite a lot an unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer to it. When we make carbon fibre parts ourselves we often wrestle with how we can make replacement parts attach in the same way as the original ones. The solution is often different every time and sometimes involves salvaging some of the clip or bracket off the original part (if it is to be discarded) or making something similar to the original bracket any way we can (by fashioning it out of a bit of plastic angle for example) or sometimes even making a small carbon fibre bracket and bonding it to the reverse of the original part. A ‘captive nut’ can sometimes be laminated into the part so that it can be screwed into. In short, there’s no one solution for all. You just need to see what you’ve got and do whatever works best each time. Almost always you’ll make the part without the brackets or fixings and then add them on after. You can bond using a little of the epoxy resin, a polyurethane resin or something like Araldite.
Hi, great video. Perhaps you could give the dimensions of the double bend rig so those of us interested can work out the bending moments and Si units. Something on joining tubes (eg how much fibre wrapping etc) would be nice.
Because the tests weren't done to any proper standards, we'd be a bit wary of anyone using the results to derive performance data on the tubes. For example, the 3D printed saddles on the 3-point bend test compress quite a bit. Whilst it's still a fair comparison between the different tubes, this would cause inaccurate data on the stiffness of the tubes per-se. Noted on some more joining information; this is something we'll have a think about : )
Great video for anyone who wants to know how to utilize carbon tubes, they are lighter and more DIY friendly than metals, but still not ideal for every case
Thanks, and our pleasure. It's actually been a bit of a rush to get this one out just before we break for Christmas. Lots planned for the new year though : )
That could be a topic for a future video yes. It's generally a case of bonding inserts into, or onto, the carbon fibre tube and then linking the inserts. Composite joining sections are an option but are very expensive (due to the huge complexity involved in making them). As rtz points out, you can also bond smaller or larger tubes inside or outside of the main tube to sleeve or ferrule them where you need additional strength.
Hello Thank you for the valuable information you provided. I have a question For example, can we use a product made of carbon fiber as a mold? Also, what do you think is the most appropriate method in mass production to produce a carbon fiber product?
Some moulds are in-fact made of carbon fibre themselves so it can certainly be used in moulds. Mass production methods entirely depend on volume and scale of production so can vary wildly.
Thanks for the comment. There's a lot of information in this one, we wondered if we could keep it interesting but I think the type of people who watch our channel are a slightly different bunch!
Very cool to watch. I was waiting for a mention of fishing rods. Carbon fibre has revolutionised them. Using a carbon fibre (I assume they’re carbon fibre) rods is a complete shock to the system, how can this ultra stiff rod cast like my old fibre glass rod. It doesn’t take long to get used to casting and loading up the rod with energy to let it fire my lure way further than the old glass rod. Lightweight and strong, stiff too but easy to cast long distances.
Quite right! Another great application for carbon fibre. I think where it’s a fishing *rod* then it will be carbon fibre rod (solid), when it’s a fishing pole then it will be a carbon fibre tube.
Fishing rods are made by wrapping on a tapered steel mandrel. Tapers, weaves, resins, fibers tend to be pretty proprietary, or at least they would have us believe. The word pole tends to be deprecated by manufacturers.@@easycompositestv
Of course Tony, that's really where it all starts to make sense. It's also why sometimes we advise customers against using carbon fibre tubes and suggest steel or ally instead; if weight doesn't matter (mainly when things don't move or get moved) then working with steel or ally will be cheaper and easier.
Thanks for the suggestion Juan. We do have some plans to cover lightweight carbon fibre wing structure coming up fairly soon. It's not a specific look at CF sailplanes but most of the principles are the same. With ultra-light-weighting, the principle is always to properly understand and trust in the capabilities of the materials and not 'overbuild' structures so much.
Hi guys, I love all of your tutorials but I would love to see you do a carbon fibre motorcycle fuel tank. I'm sure many people would love to attempt this for themselves
Yes, it's only when you see a fingernail next to it that you realise it's microscopic. I think at 0.7mm OD it's the smallest diameter carbon fibre tube you can buy. Not too many applications for tubes like this but it's a cool thing to have in the range : )
When selecting tubing for an application; choosing larger diameter thinner wall or smaller dia and thicker wall is always a challenge on which one to choose or which way to go.
Yeah, I always thought the difference in torsional performance between roll wrapped and pultruded tubes was much greater. I wonder how tubes made from woven sleeve would compare?
This test wasn’t able to show their real properties as the presented often mentioned it was the difficulty in gripping the tubes that caused them to fail early.
This video was really helpful for an upcoming project. In the project there will be a joystick handle attached halfway down the tube and an end plate at the end. The intention is to have aluminium pieces machined to join the joystick and to mate with the end of tube. I would be interested to know the best methods of joining aluminium to carbon fibre components.
Structural adhesive on a properly pre-pared surface works well. You can use a clamp type arrangement but bare in mind excessive clamping force may damage the tube.
Hi, thank you for this informative video ! How much better would a Pull Winded or Braided tube would perform in torsion compared to a Roll Wrapped ? Regards
Its all about the direction of the fibres so if the fibres are orientated diagonally to resist twist then it will be much better in twist than a typical roll wrapped tube where the fibres go down the length of the tube.
Excellent information as usual! Any thoughts on type of cloth and layup style to create a torsion bar? Porsche have upgraded CF anti-roll bars for the GT2RS and for 1 of my cars, reducing weight at the very front of the car (reducing the ARB's polar moment of inertia within the car) with a CF anti-roll bar, certainly the torsion bar section, would be a nice improvement.
ARB's prevent twist so it is likely to be some kind of spiral orientated fibres or lay up to resist twist. I suspect there has been extensive testing and prototyping to work out what is the best layup.
I see a lot of CF videos where the product comes out sort of floppy, and I thought CF was supposed to be really rigid. What's the best way to get that strength out of the CF; is it in the wetting out process, in the way you arrange the weaves, or simply lots of layers? Or perhaps something I'm not aware of?
Highly informative video! I have a question. I want to use carbon fibre tube, and each end, screw-in m6 threaded bolts. How do I do this and should I pultruded or roll-wrapped tube?
Whilst you can cut a thread into carbon fibre, we don't recommend it as it will be very short lived. What would be a better option is to bond a threaded insert into the end of the tube which your bolt can then be screwed into. A roll wrapped tube would be better for this given that it has some reinforcing running around the circumference. This will help to prevent any 'breakout' of the insert if it was to be loaded on an angle.
Hello, Sir. I have a question. Before creating carbon fiber composite parts for cars, I'd like to know, based on your experience, which machines you consider better - CNC router machinery or 3D printers? And why
I am interested in piano tuning levers. The tubes are about 300mm long. Tensile, compression, and torsion is not important but bending and hoop strength are key. Very high hoop strength and very little bending. Most I see are roll/wrap about 18mm to 22mm OD but I have no idea what ID they have - probably 16mm and 20mm respectively. How does the hoop strength increase and bending descrese if I used instead of 18mm x 16mm I used smaller diameter but thicker wall, say, 16mm x 12mm. Do you have a video where you compare tube wall thickness - same OD but different ID's for hoop strength and bending comparison? Also, I know UHM carbon fiber roll/wrap has less bend but it is brittle and will break under very heavy bending (but still maybe ok for piano tuning lever use). My idea is to allow an optional Stainless Steel rod to be inserted inside the tube to add more weight and some strength. Some people like the lighter weight of carbon fiber levers, but some prefer a bit more weight to them because heavier levers are bit eaiser to home in on the tuning pin when your arms are used to heavier levers. Is there a chart for all this?
Hi Paul, We don't have any further videos that directly address this, but for a tuning lever at 18-22mm O.D. Even a 1mm wall would be almost impossible to break by hand with a 300mm lever, I could imagine that going thicker with the wall might be needed to eliminate any flex as I would imagine that's important in that application. You could start with a 1mm wall and just add layers to the outside until you have the performance that you need, then you'll know exactly how many layers to use for the second one!
It's funny I was trying to decide which tubing type I was going use to replace the arms on my delta 3d printer just a couple weeks ago. This is by far the best comparison I've seen, just a couple weeks late. I ended up going with roll wrapped tubing and decided to use threaded inserts with epoxy to attach to magnetic ball joint sockets.
Sounds like you made the right choice anyway. 3D printers would have been another good use-case for us to mention in the video, they're definitely a good application for carbon fibre tubes because of the inertia.
I would have liked more information relative to the wall thickness of the materials used in the demonstration How would a 2mm wall thickness compare to 1mm in carbon fibre. I'm in the process of building a yacht steering wheel and I have chosen the tube with the heaviest wall thickness for the spokes not knowing what pressures the spokes will have to sustain. It is a bit of a suck it and see project.
A structural adhesive such as our VM100 is a great product for bonding composite materials together. Just be sure to check that the operation temperatures don't exceed the service temperatures of the adhesive and resin in the tubes.
Wonderfully informative video. I wonder if you could do a video on the stresses of sleeved (telescopic) tubes. I have read that one need an overlap of between one fifth and one quarter of the length of the unsupported arm. So if the unsupported arm is 80 cm one needs an overlap of between 16 and 20 cm. Is that correct?
The optimum amount of overlap would depend on the amount of hoop strength in the tubes. The overlap is there to spread the 'burst' load where the inner tube is trying to split the outer tube. The only way to know for sure would be to set two tubes up with the anticipated load. Begin with more overlap than you need and then start edging out the inner tube until you get to the failure point. You might find that for your load you can get away with less overlap and therefore achieve a longer reach for a given amount/weight of tube.
Many thanks for your reply. My “tube” will actually be a D-shaped section that I will build myself to fit around at D-section crossbeam for a 2-metre RC trimaran. I will probably over-engineer it since I don’t want to break it. But I might start with a long overlap and gradually reduce it until I feel that I am beginning to get some slop in the connection. Once again, thanks for your reply. If I was in the UK I would certainly patronize your store.
Hi, it would be great if there was a video about how we can make larger and more complex products, such as car bumpers, from carbon fiber. I'm sure it would be useful to many people.
Is it possible to drill a 5,2 mm hole on the upper and lower part of a carbonfiber roadbike fork in order to line up the braking cable internally? Or is this to high of a risk as you dont know how much this weakens the fork itself? Problem is you have clamping forces from the stem and also expanding forces from the expander?
@@easycompositestvso it's doesn't affect the strength of carbon tube aight?? I mean they are the same but with more expensive price for the glossy one
@@muhammadnurbijakbestari8613 The woven finish does not drastically change the performance of the tube no. It's more of a cosmetic finish to the part. The main structure of the tube will be the same as the roll wrapped versions.
Sure you could use carbon spars for this, you will probably need to manufacture sockets for the tubes/box section to slot into rather than cutting complex compound angles and bonding together.
Im curious if its worth using composites in a rust repair? instead of using thin steel to replace a gusset, use carbonfibre which wont rust again, my car has rust sills for example
Not generally recommended as the materials behave differently and generally the same structural part would be designed differently in composites. Also it may not pass an MoT that way.
Unlike a thermoplastic, composites like the tubes can not be heated and bent to to shape. To hold any kind of shape they need to be moulded in this manner, for larger diameter tubes this can be done with a multi part mould and internal vacuum bag however this isn't appropriate for such small diameters. The only option really would be to 3D print a dissolvable core and wrap it with a braided sleeve. Once cured the internal structure can be dissolved from the centre.
What is the best way to thread and secure a rolled CF tube? roughly 36mm, that will experience moderate loads perpendicular to the tube. It seems the failure rates of your test subjects were around the mounts.
As rtz549 commented, it's almost always a case of bonding an insert (often of metal but could be various materials) to the tube and the fixing to the fitting. The key with carbon fibre tubes is to keep the fibre continuity intact as much as possible.
I need carbon fiber tubes for a 3D printer. I am using plastic bushings for Igus. That is the same setup as Bambu Labs are using in their current printers. The issue is finding straight tubes with the accurate dimensions. It is not that carbon fiber does not work with bushings, as they do with plastic ones from for example Igus. Also, I would prefer a bit bigger diameter if possible. Preferably like 12mm maybe 16mm. I guess 8 or 10mm could work, but given the stress they are put under, 12mm seems prudent. Do you guys have anything I could use? Are yours straight? Is the OD accurate? I guess we are looking at something stranded?
@@easycompositestv probably not that much. They need to be straight and have an accurate OD. Actually there are plenty of people using carbon fiber tubes this way even on youtube. So my question is, do you have fairly straight tubes? As for accurate OD, if I try to buy that of the shelf, does that exists?
Thanks for your video, I learned some interesting things. However, I still don't understand the advantages and disadvantages of two of the most famous carbon fabrics from Toray Industries: T1100G and MX40. There are many rod manufacturers that use these carbon fibers, but I would bet that less than 1% understand their practical (not theoretical) qualities. For example, when a rod is made of T1100G carbon and it caught a big fish, what qualities will it have compared to another rod made of M40X carbon?
Thanks for your comment, haven't tested and don't stock these fibres i'm afraid so can't reliably comment on their performance. I think the custruction if the rod would probably be more of a factor when it comes to fishing and less so on the fibre type.
We might do some separate videos as a 'product spotlights', one for the pultrusions and one for the roll-wrapped tubes where we go through in more details what each tube handles like and what sort of deflection you would get for a given span and load. Along with some flexing and bending 'in hands' this would hopefully give viewers the best idea possible of the tubes before purchasing. Not general interest viewing though, which is why it would be more suitable for our Products channel.
Yep, there's no end to the interesting comparisons would could run. Box section vs tube would definitely be interesting because in a lot of ways, box section is much easier to work with than tubes. Also, comparing tubes with solid rods is something that customers ask about often and could be a whole video on its own as well because there's actually quite a few different aspects to consider. So, thanks for the ideas and maybe we'll get round to some of these in the future.
Could you please explain why carbon fibre drive shafts are sometimes used to replace steel ones. The very low torsional performance figures in your tests would indicate it's better to stay with metal.
They have the fibre orientation specifically orientated for torsional performance. These stock tubes do not. Compared to homogenous materials, composites are all about fibre directions and direction of loading.
Carbon fibre can be extremely good for making lightweight high-pressure vessels, you'll see a lot of tanks (such as hydrogen tanks) made either from pull-wound carbon fibre, or from aluminium wrapped in carbon fibre. In fact, there's a clip of this process included in this video when we mention pulwinding as another type of tube construction method. In terms of the tubes on test here, the pultrusions and the roll-wrapped, they are both designed for longitudinal stiffness, not to resist internal pressure. With no 'hoop' fibres, the pultrusions would be terrible for internal pressure. The roll-wrapped tubes which do have hoop fibres would fair much better but could be made *much* better by increasing the amount of fibre in the hoop direction.
It is interesting to see how the elastic modulus behaves at small deformations. In theory, with different types of weaving, different fibers should “switch on” at different moments of deformation. I saw an emphasis on this in the discussion topic of bicycle frames. At low loads they are “soft” and comfortable, and at large loads they are harder so as not to steal the rider’s energy. At the same time, when used in delta 3d printers, we need maximum rigidity at low loads.
I was thinking about aluminum carbon fiber laminated layer comes out with high tensile strength, but on pipe ... why you didn't demonstrate how much bar psi pressure inside it's tube could barely resist?
Maybe it's something we can look at in the future. I'd imagine that the roll wrapped tubes would perform pretty well given the fibres running round the circumference would all be in tension. Finding a way to securely block off the ends and have a valve which wouldn't blow out might be a challenge though.
any reason why carbon fibers are generally treated as if they're all the same in your videos? in reality some carbon fibers are 4-5 times stiffer than others and tensile strengths also vary by a factor of at least 3-4. love the videos and would like to see something on that topic as well.
The vast majority of carbon fibres on the market are considered "standard modulus" fibres. Although there are high modulus fibres out there, they are not easy to get hold of and not necessary for all but the highest level applications.
@@easycompositestv interesting. hasn't been my experience generally. I can buy ultra high modulus fabric directly from a local store and while the price is about 4 times that of something like T300 or equivalent it's also 3 times higher modulus. considering how much the fabric itself contributes to the total parts cost that is easy to justify on parts that are limited by stiffness instead of strength.
As noted in other comments, an excellent video. If you could just give us the distance between the supports on that test machine and the outside and inside diameters of the roll wrapped test tube, I could work out a section modulus, a bending moment and, essentially, a stress limit. I have the root bending moment on my model aircraft wing but I need that stress limit to make the best tube size selection (retired aircraft stress engineer). I'll post the calculation here.
You can see from the scale in the video, the bottom jaws for the 3 point bend test were set 120mm apart and the top came down in the centre. All tubes were 10mm OD and 8mm ID.
In theory it would be possible yes but it's not really a mechanically efficient way of doing so. A monocoque construction is far more suited to the performance of a composite material due to the way that it can spread the load.
Wanted to make a 45” L x 31”W 1/2” thick table top only made from carbon fiber what would be the best way to make it and should I? I don’t want to just simply wrap carbon fiber over a wood slab.
What I need is a way to join small tunes to larger ones like a T joiner. I need to be able to have one larger diameter tube then have smaller diameter ones crossed over running above or below. I want to construct Yagi antenna booms then wrap them in braid wire for the conductivity. Or is it possible to have the braid in the tube? I may email you guys soon. Thanks. Shane VK1NME.
Hi there, hello. I'm having trouble finding out information from Google. IDK if it's a bad idea and I don't want to waste my time. I'm modeling a mold for a carrying case im building. I want to add a spot where I can fit a nut so that after the carbon fiber cures i will be able to screw in a hinge without drilling. Is this a bad idea?
You can use BigHead Fasteners that have nuts (or studs) on a plate designed to be bonded on the reverse of the part to provide that fixing: www.easycomposites.co.uk/inserts-fasteners
I am surprised the CF performed so poorly in the torsion test compared to the metals. CF driveshafts are used in high end sports cars for their ability to take on crazy amounts of torque compared to metal driveshafts. Are they different than what was shown in this video? can somebody help me understand?
As explained in the video, its all about fibre orientation - especially for a tube such as a driveshaft where the fibres will be specifically aligned to resist twist.
You guys deserve all the success you get; these videos are some of the best marketing I've ever seen (and I've been in the business for decades).
You're not simply selling a product. You're putting genuine effort into releasing detailed, helpful, well written, and well presented content that's available to everybody, not just your customers. You continue to demonstrate a sincere commitment to helping people improve themselves and their projects, and very few companies can say that. I know that there's a hell of a lot of work that goes into these videos, but to my mind, it's the perfect marketing tool for your particular product.
Indeed! If you're running a business and that's what your advertisement looks like, you're doing something good!!!
Thank you George, that's an extremely nice bit of feedback. You've pretty much summed up our entire approach to these videos, and business in general. We're sincere about what we do, try not to be greedy, try to give back and try to grow our business in this way. So far it seems to be working and we feel very privileged to be able to call this a job!
I don’t even work in composites but these videos are always entertaining
I'm haven't done anything with composites either, but after watching some of their videos it has gone from "this is some arcane mysterious stuff" to "I would screw up a few times, but it sounds fun to try and it may even work out eventually".
These videos are the gold standard (prepreg roll-wrapped gold) for consumer-oriented technical information. Thanks and Merry Christmas to Paul and the Easy Composites team.
Thanks Justin, appreciate the support and Merry Christmas to you too.
apart from the result differences of metal and composites, you have hidden potential of an excellent teacher. teaching is not about having a PhD degree, it is all about making the things comprehendible for the students ! Bravo 👍👍👍
Thank you for the kind words; at the very heart of what we do, we want to share the knowledge and experience that we've gained over the years.
I COULDNT FIND THIS INFORMATION ANYWHERE ELSE . Thank you!
Our pleasure!
I have been binging these videos for days. My confidence in doing more complex geometry has skyrocketed.
I was heartbroken to find you don't have a US storefront though. I hope it's coming.
WOW!!!!!!!!!! THIS WAS A FANTASTIC DETAILED EXAMINATION OF A VERY COMPLEX, AND MULTI-ASPECT ARRAY OF POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS, AND, THEIR STRENGTH CONSIDERATIONS. THANK YOU, VERY MUCH, PAUL, AND, EASY COMPOSITES!! MUCH APPRECIATED!!
I love the fact that you take selling your product to a whole new level by demonstrating improving the value of the materials. I would like to see more in depth information on fiberglass and Kevlar and the main differences between the polyester resins such as General use and mold making and if you just happen to have some extra time to go over the real differences about epoxies and polyester types of resins that can be used and why.
Also can you get a us-based office.
Hi Matt, thanks for the comment and also for the topic suggestions, all of which I think would be interesting things to cover. Improving our US reach is certainly something we're working on; we'll start with improved options from the UK to US and then we plan to get stock 'on the ground' further down the line.
@@easycompositestv I second the motion. When I've looked into strength per _dollar_ I've found fiberglass to be vastly superior to carbon fiber.
Smashing production...clear, concise and informative..
Thanks
Thank you Peter. Appreciate the feedback. We weren't sure whether a 22 minute video about the construction of carbon fibre tubes would keep people's interest but we shouldn't underestimate the type of people who watch our channel!
Another great video with test data and excellent explanations on everything. Happy Holidays Easy Composites and Everyone in the comments!
Thanks Angelo, appreciate the comment and sending best wishes back to you!
I've gone down quite the rabbit hole over the past few weeks, listening and learning from Paul and the team at Easy Composites through these fantastic, informative videos. As an engineer, these videos naturally peaked my interest from the start. What initially was entertainment for me has quickly evolved into a list of parts I fully intend to start making out of carbon fiber for our business. I'm excited to start experimenting and I look forward to future videos!
Thank you a ton for these videos, you've earned a loyal customer! Cheers from Oregon, USA.
You're more than welcome Zachary - as the saying goes, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life and we get such a kick out of making the videos and sharing our knowledge and experiences but the icing on the cake is when we get wonderful feedback like this as it makes us want to get back in the studio and get more content out 🙂
Always a great day when Easy Composites has a new video out.
Thanks Kyrazlan, glad you're still enjoying our content. Lots more to come in the new year.
Another superb presentation, with hours of work to put it all together. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I get happy everytime I see this guy - I know I'm about to learn somethin'
Cheers Graywolf, appreciate the comment :)
Slight correction, stainless steel has the same Young's modulus as mild steel. In fact, almost all types of steel have Young's moduli of 200±10 GPa. Heat treatment does not change this either.
Thanks for the comment and apologies for the error. You're quite right and in fact the original script just noted that stainless steel is considerably stronger (not stiffer) than mild steel. We're normally pretty good at spotting such mistakes but this one got through about 4 proof watches by several people so maybe we need to tighten our procedures! I think I've been able to do a rough-and-ready 'trim' on the video (which RUclips allows, until the video has had 100,000 views) so you'll soon see the line slightly clumsily removed.
Sweet!!! It's always a great pleasure to learn from Easy Composites!
Thank you, appreciate the feedback and glad to hear you're enjoying our content.
You could redo these tests while using an 8mm bar as filler in each end to give a solid grip on each tube reducing the stress risers at the collet. This would focus the test to just the tube section between each collet and provide sufficient grip without crushing
Love your videos, as I always learn so much in a matter of minutes.
A1 production and editing!
🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼😎🍀🎅🏻
Hey Steve! Thanks for the support and feedback as always. Sending you seasons greetings for your much hotter Christmas than ours this holidays : )
This video is outstanding. From the presenting to the production, it far exceeded my expectations! Glad to be a customer of yours.
Hi Nick. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment, we appreciate the feedback.
I watched it out of curiosity... Great material 🙂👍 I'm sharing it🎬📺
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the share; appreciated : )
Incredibly informative and I have to say the best channel for composites. I’d love to see a video on recreating plastic tabs for say mirror caps or other clip in components. Everything I’ve learned I’ve learned here and gave me to confidence to put into practice. Keep up the amazing videos
Your question is one that we get asked quite a lot an unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer to it. When we make carbon fibre parts ourselves we often wrestle with how we can make replacement parts attach in the same way as the original ones. The solution is often different every time and sometimes involves salvaging some of the clip or bracket off the original part (if it is to be discarded) or making something similar to the original bracket any way we can (by fashioning it out of a bit of plastic angle for example) or sometimes even making a small carbon fibre bracket and bonding it to the reverse of the original part. A ‘captive nut’ can sometimes be laminated into the part so that it can be screwed into.
In short, there’s no one solution for all. You just need to see what you’ve got and do whatever works best each time. Almost always you’ll make the part without the brackets or fixings and then add them on after. You can bond using a little of the epoxy resin, a polyurethane resin or something like Araldite.
We need some epoxy generational innovation/discovery.
Great vidy : )
Merry Christmas
fabulous! Again blown away about the thorough informations and tidbits like the reverse engineering.
Glad you like it!
Hi, great video. Perhaps you could give the dimensions of the double bend rig so those of us interested can work out the bending moments and Si units.
Something on joining tubes (eg how much fibre wrapping etc) would be nice.
Because the tests weren't done to any proper standards, we'd be a bit wary of anyone using the results to derive performance data on the tubes. For example, the 3D printed saddles on the 3-point bend test compress quite a bit. Whilst it's still a fair comparison between the different tubes, this would cause inaccurate data on the stiffness of the tubes per-se. Noted on some more joining information; this is something we'll have a think about : )
Great video for anyone who wants to know how to utilize carbon tubes, they are lighter and more DIY friendly than metals, but still not ideal for every case
Looks like Christmas came a couple of days early! Thanks for another great video!
Thanks, and our pleasure. It's actually been a bit of a rush to get this one out just before we break for Christmas. Lots planned for the new year though : )
Could you go into constructing with and joining carbon tubes? I would like to know since joint failure seemed to be a theme in the tests
Windsurf masts use a short section of tubing glued into one half to make the ferrule.
That could be a topic for a future video yes. It's generally a case of bonding inserts into, or onto, the carbon fibre tube and then linking the inserts. Composite joining sections are an option but are very expensive (due to the huge complexity involved in making them). As rtz points out, you can also bond smaller or larger tubes inside or outside of the main tube to sleeve or ferrule them where you need additional strength.
@@rtz549 thank you for the reply!
@@easycompositestv Thank you for the reply!
Hello
Thank you for the valuable information you provided.
I have a question
For example, can we use a product made of carbon fiber as a mold?
Also, what do you think is the most appropriate method in mass production to produce a carbon fiber product?
Some moulds are in-fact made of carbon fibre themselves so it can certainly be used in moulds. Mass production methods entirely depend on volume and scale of production so can vary wildly.
Another super interesting presentation - good work 👍
Thanks for the comment. There's a lot of information in this one, we wondered if we could keep it interesting but I think the type of people who watch our channel are a slightly different bunch!
What a great analysis, thank you!
Thanks for watching, Glad you liked it!
Best composite material channel on RUclips 😃excellent content again, thank you very much sir
Glad to help.
Very cool to watch. I was waiting for a mention of fishing rods. Carbon fibre has revolutionised them. Using a carbon fibre (I assume they’re carbon fibre) rods is a complete shock to the system, how can this ultra stiff rod cast like my old fibre glass rod. It doesn’t take long to get used to casting and loading up the rod with energy to let it fire my lure way further than the old glass rod. Lightweight and strong, stiff too but easy to cast long distances.
Quite right! Another great application for carbon fibre. I think where it’s a fishing *rod* then it will be carbon fibre rod (solid), when it’s a fishing pole then it will be a carbon fibre tube.
Fishing rods are made by wrapping on a tapered steel mandrel. Tapers, weaves, resins, fibers tend to be pretty proprietary, or at least they would have us believe. The word pole tends to be deprecated by manufacturers.@@easycompositestv
Great to hear @ 14:16 that my woven finish carbon fibre kite frame :) out-performs aluminium at less weight.
Thank you for also comparing performance by weight.
Of course Tony, that's really where it all starts to make sense. It's also why sometimes we advise customers against using carbon fibre tubes and suggest steel or ally instead; if weight doesn't matter (mainly when things don't move or get moved) then working with steel or ally will be cheaper and easier.
Hey Paul could you cover a video on how those fancy 2meter / 3meter carbon fiber sail planes. How do they get it to weight almost nothing?
Thanks for the suggestion Juan. We do have some plans to cover lightweight carbon fibre wing structure coming up fairly soon. It's not a specific look at CF sailplanes but most of the principles are the same. With ultra-light-weighting, the principle is always to properly understand and trust in the capabilities of the materials and not 'overbuild' structures so much.
@@easycompositestv can't wait to see it.
Hi guys, I love all of your tutorials but I would love to see you do a carbon fibre motorcycle fuel tank. I'm sure many people would love to attempt this for themselves
Great video as always!
Would love to go into details on how to bond carbon fibre tubes to metal parts like you said in the last part.
Bonding composites is something we hope to cover in a future video.
Excellent production guys! Informative and succinct whilst covering all of the common concepts.
Cheers Dejan
That small diameter pultrusion tube is pretty impressive. Cool they can go that small
Yes, it's only when you see a fingernail next to it that you realise it's microscopic. I think at 0.7mm OD it's the smallest diameter carbon fibre tube you can buy. Not too many applications for tubes like this but it's a cool thing to have in the range : )
Great video. Fantastic summary.
Thank you, appreciated : )
Very interesting!!Please make a video on bonding, thank you.
When selecting tubing for an application; choosing larger diameter thinner wall or smaller dia and thicker wall is always a challenge on which one to choose or which way to go.
No carbon fibers were harmed in this video. 🤣 Great video! Thanks for sharing.
I found it really interesting how weak carbon fiber is in torsion. Great video!
Yeah, I always thought the difference in torsional performance between roll wrapped and pultruded tubes was much greater. I wonder how tubes made from woven sleeve would compare?
This test wasn’t able to show their real properties as the presented often mentioned it was the difficulty in gripping the tubes that caused them to fail early.
This video was really helpful for an upcoming project.
In the project there will be a joystick handle attached halfway down the tube and an end plate at the end. The intention is to have aluminium pieces machined to join the joystick and to mate with the end of tube.
I would be interested to know the best methods of joining aluminium to carbon fibre components.
Structural adhesive on a properly pre-pared surface works well. You can use a clamp type arrangement but bare in mind excessive clamping force may damage the tube.
Brillant in all aspects, as always
Hi, thank you for this informative video ! How much better would a Pull Winded or Braided tube would perform in torsion compared to a Roll Wrapped ? Regards
Its all about the direction of the fibres so if the fibres are orientated diagonally to resist twist then it will be much better in twist than a typical roll wrapped tube where the fibres go down the length of the tube.
seeing these results makes the carbon fiber driveshafts they put in these 5000hp cars far more impressive than they already were.
Awesome video, Thanx for sharing ❤❤❤ happy holidays 🎉
Thanks for the comment and support and happy holidays to you too.
Excellent information as usual!
Any thoughts on type of cloth and layup style to create a torsion bar?
Porsche have upgraded CF anti-roll bars for the GT2RS and for 1 of my cars, reducing weight at the very front of the car (reducing the ARB's polar moment of inertia within the car) with a CF anti-roll bar, certainly the torsion bar section, would be a nice improvement.
ARB's prevent twist so it is likely to be some kind of spiral orientated fibres or lay up to resist twist. I suspect there has been extensive testing and prototyping to work out what is the best layup.
I see a lot of CF videos where the product comes out sort of floppy, and I thought CF was supposed to be really rigid. What's the best way to get that strength out of the CF; is it in the wetting out process, in the way you arrange the weaves, or simply lots of layers? Or perhaps something I'm not aware of?
It depends on thickness, fibres used etc. In its raw format, carbon is flexible. It only becomes rigid when laminated with resin.
Highly informative video! I have a question. I want to use carbon fibre tube, and each end, screw-in m6 threaded bolts. How do I do this and should I pultruded or roll-wrapped tube?
Whilst you can cut a thread into carbon fibre, we don't recommend it as it will be very short lived. What would be a better option is to bond a threaded insert into the end of the tube which your bolt can then be screwed into. A roll wrapped tube would be better for this given that it has some reinforcing running around the circumference. This will help to prevent any 'breakout' of the insert if it was to be loaded on an angle.
@@easycompositestv Thanks for your advice! Any idea where I can get. 'threaded inserts' from? What would be a good Google search terms/words?
@@SimonMaudeShowreel Female threaded inserts should give you a range of options. VM100 would be a good choice of adhesive to bond in place.
Hello, Sir. I have a question. Before creating carbon fiber composite parts for cars, I'd like to know, based on your experience, which machines you consider better - CNC router machinery or 3D printers? And why
They are completely different so depends on the specific application.
It's for automotive mode parts for cars
I am interested in piano tuning levers. The tubes are about 300mm long. Tensile, compression, and torsion is not important but bending and hoop strength are key. Very high hoop strength and very little bending. Most I see are roll/wrap about 18mm to 22mm OD but I have no idea what ID they have - probably 16mm and 20mm respectively. How does the hoop strength increase and bending descrese if I used instead of 18mm x 16mm I used smaller diameter but thicker wall, say, 16mm x 12mm. Do you have a video where you compare tube wall thickness - same OD but different ID's for hoop strength and bending comparison? Also, I know UHM carbon fiber roll/wrap has less bend but it is brittle and will break under very heavy bending (but still maybe ok for piano tuning lever use).
My idea is to allow an optional Stainless Steel rod to be inserted inside the tube to add more weight and some strength. Some people like the lighter weight of carbon fiber levers, but some prefer a bit more weight to them because heavier levers are bit eaiser to home in on the tuning pin when your arms are used to heavier levers.
Is there a chart for all this?
Hi Paul, We don't have any further videos that directly address this, but for a tuning lever at 18-22mm O.D. Even a 1mm wall would be almost impossible to break by hand with a 300mm lever, I could imagine that going thicker with the wall might be needed to eliminate any flex as I would imagine that's important in that application. You could start with a 1mm wall and just add layers to the outside until you have the performance that you need, then you'll know exactly how many layers to use for the second one!
Is there a specific epoxy resin for making a carbon fiber part ,,or you can also use table epoxy to make a carbon fiber
No you would typically want a laminating epoxy for the job. Clear casting epoxies have a different balance of properties.
It's funny I was trying to decide which tubing type I was going use to replace the arms on my delta 3d printer just a couple weeks ago. This is by far the best comparison I've seen, just a couple weeks late. I ended up going with roll wrapped tubing and decided to use threaded inserts with epoxy to attach to magnetic ball joint sockets.
Done the same on an old G2S with "pig iron rods".
You won't be disappointed: 1/4 the weight, less vibrations and 50% more speed with mine.
Sounds like you made the right choice anyway. 3D printers would have been another good use-case for us to mention in the video, they're definitely a good application for carbon fibre tubes because of the inertia.
I would have liked more information relative to the wall thickness of the materials used in the demonstration How would a 2mm wall thickness compare to 1mm in carbon fibre. I'm in the process of building a yacht steering wheel and I have chosen the tube with the heaviest wall thickness for the spokes not knowing what pressures the spokes will have to sustain. It is a bit of a suck it and see project.
Custom projects like that it is hard to know for sure without testing or calculations.
What would be the best way to bond a CF tube to a CF plate? (Application: I need some stand-offs for an engine cover)
A structural adhesive such as our VM100 is a great product for bonding composite materials together. Just be sure to check that the operation temperatures don't exceed the service temperatures of the adhesive and resin in the tubes.
Wonderfully informative video. I wonder if you could do a video on the stresses of sleeved (telescopic) tubes. I have read that one need an overlap of between one fifth and one quarter of the length of the unsupported arm. So if the unsupported arm is 80 cm one needs an overlap of between 16 and 20 cm. Is that correct?
The optimum amount of overlap would depend on the amount of hoop strength in the tubes. The overlap is there to spread the 'burst' load where the inner tube is trying to split the outer tube. The only way to know for sure would be to set two tubes up with the anticipated load. Begin with more overlap than you need and then start edging out the inner tube until you get to the failure point. You might find that for your load you can get away with less overlap and therefore achieve a longer reach for a given amount/weight of tube.
Many thanks for your reply. My “tube” will actually be a D-shaped section that I will build myself to fit around at D-section crossbeam for a 2-metre RC trimaran. I will probably over-engineer it since I don’t want to break it. But I might start with a long overlap and gradually reduce it until I feel that I am beginning to get some slop in the connection. Once again, thanks for your reply. If I was in the UK I would certainly patronize your store.
Hi, it would be great if there was a video about how we can make larger and more complex products, such as car bumpers, from carbon fiber. I'm sure it would be useful to many people.
Please check our back catalogue, this is pretty much half of our other videos! Definitely watch the (quite old) 3-part bonnet making series.
Is it possible to drill a 5,2 mm hole on the upper and lower part of a carbonfiber roadbike fork in order to line up the braking cable internally? Or is this to high of a risk as you dont know how much this weakens the fork itself? Problem is you have clamping forces from the stem and also expanding forces from the expander?
We can't really advise on this I'm afraid as it would likely compromise the integrity of the fork to an unknown extent.
@@easycompositestv thought so. I think it's not worth the effort. But do you think with additional strengthening layers it could be possible?
@@Freeriderz666 Again, we can't really advise without knowing the original design parameters of the original part.
How about glossy RWrapped and Dof Rwrapped did it goes the same?
The glossy finish is the lacquer applied after the ribbed texture has been ground off.
@@easycompositestvso it's doesn't affect the strength of carbon tube aight?? I mean they are the same but with more expensive price for the glossy one
@@easycompositestvthank youu
@@muhammadnurbijakbestari8613 The woven finish does not drastically change the performance of the tube no. It's more of a cosmetic finish to the part. The main structure of the tube will be the same as the roll wrapped versions.
Great video , if you increase the diameter say from 10mm tube to say 20mm tube , does the strength double as rough guide ?
No, it roughly quadruples the strength.
@@malin5468thankyou
Bound aluminium with CF is very interesting theme, hope you would reveal best practices in that matter in next videos
Maybe something for us to look into in the future.
Would Love to see you make a roll wrapped tube without prepreg and see the Actual Breakage stats.
What kind of aluminum are you using for these tests?
6063 grade Aluminium.
Can I use Carbon Fibre Tubes or Squares as Struts in larger Geodesic Domes to take advantage of the low weight...
Sure you could use carbon spars for this, you will probably need to manufacture sockets for the tubes/box section to slot into rather than cutting complex compound angles and bonding together.
Im curious if its worth using composites in a rust repair? instead of using thin steel to replace a gusset, use carbonfibre which wont rust again, my car has rust sills for example
Not generally recommended as the materials behave differently and generally the same structural part would be designed differently in composites. Also it may not pass an MoT that way.
Can you bend these tube's into a custom shape or how would you make these tube's with a 7mm OD and a bunch of curve like bike seat rails?
Unlike a thermoplastic, composites like the tubes can not be heated and bent to to shape. To hold any kind of shape they need to be moulded in this manner, for larger diameter tubes this can be done with a multi part mould and internal vacuum bag however this isn't appropriate for such small diameters. The only option really would be to 3D print a dissolvable core and wrap it with a braided sleeve. Once cured the internal structure can be dissolved from the centre.
What is the best way to thread and secure a rolled CF tube? roughly 36mm, that will experience moderate loads perpendicular to the tube. It seems the failure rates of your test subjects were around the mounts.
Epoxying in a threaded insert is the usual way.
As rtz549 commented, it's almost always a case of bonding an insert (often of metal but could be various materials) to the tube and the fixing to the fitting. The key with carbon fibre tubes is to keep the fibre continuity intact as much as possible.
Hey guys do you have some details about carbon fiber cones (taped tubes for fishing rods)?
Its not something we stock. Many conical tubes can be made by the roll wrapping method.
Hi, what would be a more suitable grip method for the composites?
Perhaps a grip that can be made for the specific tube size that grips internally and externally.
@@easycompositestv hi, that was my thought. Perhaps something that expands internally whilst compressing externally preventing distortion of the tube.
awesome) very useful. Thank you
I need carbon fiber tubes for a 3D printer. I am using plastic bushings for Igus. That is the same setup as Bambu Labs are using in their current printers. The issue is finding straight tubes with the accurate dimensions. It is not that carbon fiber does not work with bushings, as they do with plastic ones from for example Igus. Also, I would prefer a bit bigger diameter if possible. Preferably like 12mm maybe 16mm. I guess 8 or 10mm could work, but given the stress they are put under, 12mm seems prudent. Do you guys have anything I could use? Are yours straight? Is the OD accurate? I guess we are looking at something stranded?
I suspect they have the tubes specifically sized and spec'd for their requirements.
@@easycompositestv probably not that much. They need to be straight and have an accurate OD. Actually there are plenty of people using carbon fiber tubes this way even on youtube.
So my question is, do you have fairly straight tubes? As for accurate OD, if I try to buy that of the shelf, does that exists?
Thanks for your video, I learned some interesting things. However, I still don't understand the advantages and disadvantages of two of the most famous carbon fabrics from Toray Industries: T1100G and MX40. There are many rod manufacturers that use these carbon fibers, but I would bet that less than 1% understand their practical (not theoretical) qualities. For example, when a rod is made of T1100G carbon and it caught a big fish, what qualities will it have compared to another rod made of M40X carbon?
Thanks for your comment, haven't tested and don't stock these fibres i'm afraid so can't reliably comment on their performance. I think the custruction if the rod would probably be more of a factor when it comes to fishing and less so on the fibre type.
The small tubes are really nice, any chance to do a strength test on some of those?
We might do some separate videos as a 'product spotlights', one for the pultrusions and one for the roll-wrapped tubes where we go through in more details what each tube handles like and what sort of deflection you would get for a given span and load. Along with some flexing and bending 'in hands' this would hopefully give viewers the best idea possible of the tubes before purchasing. Not general interest viewing though, which is why it would be more suitable for our Products channel.
It'd be great to do something similar, but comparing tubes to solid rods of CF.
and then again, but box vs round tubes.
Yep, there's no end to the interesting comparisons would could run. Box section vs tube would definitely be interesting because in a lot of ways, box section is much easier to work with than tubes. Also, comparing tubes with solid rods is something that customers ask about often and could be a whole video on its own as well because there's actually quite a few different aspects to consider. So, thanks for the ideas and maybe we'll get round to some of these in the future.
@easycompositestv thanks. What'd be interesting to know is what diameter and weight of solid rod matches (roughlty) what diameter and weight of tube.
Could you please explain why carbon fibre drive shafts are sometimes used to replace steel ones. The very low torsional performance figures in your tests would indicate it's better to stay with metal.
They have the fibre orientation specifically orientated for torsional performance. These stock tubes do not. Compared to homogenous materials, composites are all about fibre directions and direction of loading.
Really interesting video. What was the diameter of the tubes you were testing?
All of the tubes in the test were 10mm OD 8mm ID.
What about internal pressure? Say you got 20 bars or more on inside.
No subs allowed 😂
Carbon fibre can be extremely good for making lightweight high-pressure vessels, you'll see a lot of tanks (such as hydrogen tanks) made either from pull-wound carbon fibre, or from aluminium wrapped in carbon fibre. In fact, there's a clip of this process included in this video when we mention pulwinding as another type of tube construction method. In terms of the tubes on test here, the pultrusions and the roll-wrapped, they are both designed for longitudinal stiffness, not to resist internal pressure. With no 'hoop' fibres, the pultrusions would be terrible for internal pressure. The roll-wrapped tubes which do have hoop fibres would fair much better but could be made *much* better by increasing the amount of fibre in the hoop direction.
It is interesting to see how the elastic modulus behaves at small deformations.
In theory, with different types of weaving, different fibers should “switch on” at different moments of deformation.
I saw an emphasis on this in the discussion topic of bicycle frames.
At low loads they are “soft” and comfortable, and at large loads they are harder so as not to steal the rider’s energy.
At the same time, when used in delta 3d printers, we need maximum rigidity at low loads.
You certainly could tweak the fibres used and their orientation to modify the properties of the tube in a similar way.
great content. how to securely glue a carbon tube with an aluminum sleeve?
Structural adhesive on a properly pre-pared surface works well.
I was thinking about aluminum carbon fiber laminated layer comes out with high tensile strength, but on pipe ... why you didn't demonstrate how much bar psi pressure inside it's tube could barely resist?
Maybe it's something we can look at in the future. I'd imagine that the roll wrapped tubes would perform pretty well given the fibres running round the circumference would all be in tension. Finding a way to securely block off the ends and have a valve which wouldn't blow out might be a challenge though.
@@easycompositestv just need imagination first place to change the future pal. Good idea
any reason why carbon fibers are generally treated as if they're all the same in your videos? in reality some carbon fibers are 4-5 times stiffer than others and tensile strengths also vary by a factor of at least 3-4. love the videos and would like to see something on that topic as well.
The vast majority of carbon fibres on the market are considered "standard modulus" fibres. Although there are high modulus fibres out there, they are not easy to get hold of and not necessary for all but the highest level applications.
@@easycompositestv interesting. hasn't been my experience generally. I can buy ultra high modulus fabric directly from a local store and while the price is about 4 times that of something like T300 or equivalent it's also 3 times higher modulus. considering how much the fabric itself contributes to the total parts cost that is easy to justify on parts that are limited by stiffness instead of strength.
Top quality video!
11:11 the use-case carbon tubes waited for
You are the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As noted in other comments, an excellent video. If you could just give us the distance between the supports on that test machine and the outside and inside diameters of the roll wrapped test tube, I could work out a section modulus, a bending moment and, essentially, a stress limit. I have the root bending moment on my model aircraft wing but I need that stress limit to make the best tube size selection (retired aircraft stress engineer). I'll post the calculation here.
You can see from the scale in the video, the bottom jaws for the 3 point bend test were set 120mm apart and the top came down in the centre. All tubes were 10mm OD and 8mm ID.
Is it possible to build a carbon fiber tube chassis for a formula racecar using aluminum nodes?
In theory it would be possible yes but it's not really a mechanically efficient way of doing so. A monocoque construction is far more suited to the performance of a composite material due to the way that it can spread the load.
Wanted to make a 45” L x 31”W 1/2” thick table top only made from carbon fiber what would be the best way to make it and should I? I don’t want to just simply wrap carbon fiber over a wood slab.
A foam cored panel would be the best method for that thickness. You could resin infuse it.
Great Video , Can I use infusion to make a tube
in theory yes, but it will require careful planning of the resin feed and vacuum lines to ensure the full tube is wet out properly without dry spots.
Hello. I want to ask you if it is okay to make a hanglider with carbon fiber frame.
In theory, yes, but you’d have to be 100% confident about the performance, suitability and reliability of the tubes you selected.
I’d really like to try making something out of carbon fibre
Once I have more space I’ll definitely give it a go
damn, really good video! I'll keep that in mind if I ever need cf tubes
What I need is a way to join small tunes to larger ones like a T joiner.
I need to be able to have one larger diameter tube then have smaller diameter ones crossed over running above or below.
I want to construct Yagi antenna booms then wrap them in braid wire for the conductivity.
Or is it possible to have the braid in the tube?
I may email you guys soon.
Thanks.
Shane VK1NME.
Drop us an email Shane, might be a struggle to cover it all here!
Id love this video for carbon rod as well.
Most carbon rods are made using the pultrusion process so there would only really be a comparison between the metal and carbon.
Hi there, hello. I'm having trouble finding out information from Google. IDK if it's a bad idea and I don't want to waste my time. I'm modeling a mold for a carrying case im building. I want to add a spot where I can fit a nut so that after the carbon fiber cures i will be able to screw in a hinge without drilling. Is this a bad idea?
You can use BigHead Fasteners that have nuts (or studs) on a plate designed to be bonded on the reverse of the part to provide that fixing: www.easycomposites.co.uk/inserts-fasteners
I am surprised the CF performed so poorly in the torsion test compared to the metals. CF driveshafts are used in high end sports cars for their ability to take on crazy amounts of torque compared to metal driveshafts. Are they different than what was shown in this video? can somebody help me understand?
As explained in the video, its all about fibre orientation - especially for a tube such as a driveshaft where the fibres will be specifically aligned to resist twist.
How do you tread them for high pressure seals
You wouldn’t thread the tube directly, you’d bond a threaded insert into the tube.
what about weaving them like a kellums grip?
In a raw tow format but once cured with a resin, the resin matrix would restrict the ability of the fibres to move that way.