High Stiffest Roll Wrapped Carbon Fibre Tube 100% 3K Carbon Fiber Tube

Roll Wrapped Carbon Fibre Tube

The tubes in this category are roll-wrapped pre-preg reinforcement. Roll wrapped tubes feature multi-axial orientation of the carbon fibres which gives them more uniformly distributed strength ideally suited to more demanding 'real world' applications where load and forces are rarely in only one direction. Typical uses include mast poles, spinnakers, booms, structural racking and many other medium to heavy duty applications.

We stock Carbon Fibre tube manufactured using 3k plain weave style of Carbon Fibre Cloth Fabric. Plain weave carbon fibre fabric is the 2nd most commonly used type of carbon cloth. Instead of having the distinctive diagonal pattern of 2/2 twill, plain weave is woven over-one-under-one leaving it with a simple grid pattern appearance.

Roll-wrapped tubes feature a slight rib texture spiralling along their length where shrink-tape has been used in the manufacturing process. If needs be, this can easily be sanded and polished away.

Carbon fibre tubes are a rigid carbon fibre product. They cannot be bent or reshaped in any way.

Manufacture of Carbon fibre Products

The primary element of CFRP is a carbon filament made by heating rayon or polyacrylonitrile fibres or petroleum residues to appropriate temperatures. Fibres may be 7 to 8 microns in diameter and are more that 90% carbonized. These fibres are the stiffest and strongest reinforcing fibres for polymer composites.

Carbon Fibre Cloth: From the elementary fibre, a bi-directional woven sheet can be created, i.e. a twill with a 2/2 weave. These sheets may be layered onto each other in a quasi-isotropic layup, e.g. 0, +60 or -60 degrees relative to each other. Depending on the orientation of the fibres, the carbon fibre composite can be stronger in a certain direction or equally strong in all directions. A small piece can withstand an impact of many tons and still deform minimally. The complex interwoven nature of the fibre makes it very difficult to break.

Roll Wrapping: involves the applying of resin pre-impregnated composite fibre cloth (Pre-Preg) around a mandrel. The outer diameter of the mandrel thus determines the inner diameter of the final tube. The mandrel and cloth are then spiral wrapped with a consolidation tape under tension to hold the laminate in place during the curing phase. After curing, the mandrel is extracted to leave the tube ready for machining or finishing as necessary.

Pultrusion: is a process in which dry, continuous fibres are pulled through a bath of resin and then through a die. The die serves two purposes: it forces the bundle of wet fibres to conform to the shape you want to create and, since the die is heated, it will cure the resin to set the bundle of fibres into its final shape. After the composite comes out of the die, it is allowed to post-cure while being pulled to the saw where it will be cut to stock lengths.