Why is there so much price difference among different grades of carbon fiber?

We can roughly divide carbon fibers into civilian grade carbon fiber and aerospace grade carbon fibers by grade.

First,civil carbon fiber, such as carbon fiber bicycles, tennis rackets, because of its raw material performance compared with military industry, the requirements are not so harsh, many countries can make their own, so the price will not be very high.

Then, in the aerospace field, especially in the field of military aviation, the high speed and overload requirements of aircraft have strict requirements for material strength and deformation. In addition, for every kilogram of weight lost, commercial aircraft can save 3000 of dollars per year. By reducing the weight of long-range rockets and spaceships by 1 kg, a kilo of fuel can be saved for every 10 000 kilograms. By reducing weight, you can increase the payload and reduce the cost of flight.

There're why is there so much different in price of the different grade carbon fiber,and below are also the factors that cannot be ignored:
1.Production process
Carbon fiber production is a very complex system engineering, from the preparation of carbon fiber raw wire to pre-oxidation, carbonization, to packaging, until the final finished product, it has a high demand for each step of the process and equipment. At the same time, the production of carbon fiber is a process of high energy consumption. For example, the high-energy carbonization process generally goes through the low-temperature carbonization process (temperature range 300-1000 degrees Celsius) and the high temperature carbonization process (temperature range 1000-1600 degrees Celsius), if it is necessary to prepare highly modulus high-strength carbon fiber like T700,T800,T1000 and other aviation materials, It also needs to be treated at a high temperature of 2,200-3,000 degrees Celsius.

2.market factors
From the market point of view, the core technology of advanced carbon fiber is still mastered by a few countries, the global carbon fiber production capacity is limited, will inevitably form a price monopoly.

 

 


Post time: Mar-25-2019

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