Application of carbon fiber composite materials in the field of sports and leisure and main manufacturing processes
The application of carbon fiber in sports products originated in the 1970s. At that time, everyone focused on aerospace and military industry. After all, such a high-end field, especially the US-Soviet space race, satellites, spacecrafts, and moon landing programs during that period, attracted the attention of the world.
For a long time, carbon fiber composite materials have successfully penetrated into various fields of sports goods, and sports goods are also the industrial sector for the application and development of carbon fiber after aerospace.
Carbon fiber composite materials have become the material of choice in the sports goods industry due to their light weight, high strength, and excellent fatigue resistance. The inspiration for the sports goods market of carbon fiber comes from Jim Flood in the United States, who is known as the Edison of golf. In 1972, Jim Flood discovered that using carbon fiber clubs can hit golf balls 30 yards farther than irons. Subsequently, carbon fiber was promoted in other sports as a substitute for metal materials, such as badminton, tennis, baseball, skateboarding, skiing, cycling, rowing, archery, and other sports, as well as leisure sports such as fishing.
Advantages of carbon fiber composite materials in sports equipment
With the progress of society, people's pursuit of lifestyle is constantly improving. Sports have penetrated into the lives of each of us. Healthy and scientific training methods are also the focus of people's attention. The requirements for sports equipment are getting higher and higher. The market for new sports equipment is also expanding, and the requirements for the materials of sports equipment are also getting higher and higher. The advantages of carbon fiber in weight and strength make it the preferred material for new sports equipment. As a result, carbon fiber is increasingly widely used in the field of sports equipment. What are the advantages of carbon fiber in sports equipment:
(1) Light weight
Except for special sports that require weight, when people use sports equipment for exercise, the lighter the sports equipment, the better. Light weight can enable exercisers to perform better, such as tennis rackets, clubs, bicycles, skis, etc. Even some equipment that relies on power other than human power to make them move, such as racing cars and sailboats, also requires light weight, which can reduce power requirements and save fuel. Carbon fiber has irreplaceable advantages in this regard.
(2) Good mechanical properties
The specific strength and specific modulus of carbon fiber materials cannot be surpassed by other materials. Its unique mechanical properties just meet the needs of sports equipment and are an excellent choice for sports equipment. Carbon fiber composites are mainly resin cured and molded, which can play a greater role in processing design.
(3) Safety, hygiene and environmental protection
Carbon fiber composite materials not only have many advantages, but are also an environmentally friendly material with guaranteed hygiene and safety. They are new materials with special properties. In addition to good mechanical properties, strong plasticity and high safety, they are also recyclable resources. They are highly environmentally friendly and easy to recycle, while reducing costs and saving resources. These characteristics will become the advantages of carbon fiber composite materials in the widespread use of sports equipment.
(4) High plasticity
Plasticity is one of the basic conditions for manufacturing sports equipment. Plastics and carbon fiber composite materials all have a certain degree of plasticity. Plastics and their alloys can be processed and formed in many ways (blow molding, injection molding, extrusion, thermoforming, etc.), and then applied to sports equipment. Compared with other common materials, they have better plasticity. With the development of my country's sports industry, materials applied to the field of sports equipment can be processed in more ways to improve the performance of sports equipment.
(5) Good aging resistance
In actual applications, sports equipment is mostly outdoors and is easily affected by natural environments such as sunlight and thunderstorms. At the same time, substances such as oxygen, ozone and acidic gases in the atmosphere can also damage it. In addition, changes in temperature will cause aging, cracks, color changes, etc. of sports equipment. Therefore, sports equipment needs to have good corrosion resistance and aging resistance when it is put into use, especially in open-air environments. The requirements in this regard are more stringent. If the aging resistance is poor, it will seriously affect the service life of the equipment.
Application of carbon fiber composite materials in sports and leisure products
The application of carbon fiber sports products can be divided into two major directions. One is competitive sports, which mainly emphasizes high precision, higher and faster. The other is daily fitness and leisure, which requires a suitable cost performance ratio. At present, the products with the largest consumption of carbon fiber in the field of sports products are:
(1) Bicycles
Steel is the longest-lasting material for bicycles. It has good elasticity and low cost, but due to its high density, it is easy to rust and fatigue. Aluminum alloy is a commonly used material in the market. It is light and will not rust, but its elasticity is too poor, it is easy to fatigue, and the riding comfort is not good. The density of magnesium alloy is smaller than that of aluminum alloy, and its basic performance is similar to that of aluminum alloy. The fatigue resistance of titanium alloy is better than that of other metal materials, but the price is high and the specific gravity is not advantageous. Carbon fiber composite materials have high strength, good elasticity, light density and corrosion resistance. Bicycles produced from carbon fiber composite materials have the following characteristics:
a. Effectively reduce the total weight of the bicycle
The density of carbon fiber resin-based composite materials is generally only 1.6. It is only one-fifth of steel and can reduce weight by about 40% compared with aluminum. There is a saying in the bicycle industry that if the weight is reduced by 1g, the price can be increased by 1 dollar. A carbon fiber composite bicycle frame is one-quarter lighter than an aluminum alloy frame. Light weight can reduce physical energy loss and thus increase riding speed.
b. High overall rigidity of the body
A frame with good rigidity is conducive to the conversion of driving force and improves the handling performance of the bicycle. The structure of a carbon fiber composite bicycle is strong and not easy to deform. Practice has proved that its frame rigidity is not lower than that of a molybdenum steel frame.
c. Good shock resistance
The natural frequency of the structure is not only related to the structural shape, but also proportional to the square of the specific modulus of the material. A high natural frequency can avoid early damage caused by resonance under working conditions. It is reported that tests on frames of the same shape and size show that the vibration of an aluminum alloy frame takes 9 seconds to stop, while the carbon fiber composite material with extremely high natural frequency only takes 2.5 seconds to stop. The good damping of the composite material reduces the bumps of the bicycle and improves the riding comfort.
d. Good safety
The matrix in carbon fiber composite materials is a continuous phase that surrounds independent carbon fibers, forming a dynamic uncertain system. When the material is impacted, when a small number of fibers break, the load will be quickly redistributed to the unbroken fibers, so that the structure can continue to bear the load, greatly improving the safety of riding. It is difficult to observe obvious signs of fatigue failure of general metal materials, and their failure is often sudden, while carbon fiber composite frames have very good fatigue resistance, and obvious signs can be observed before failure. Studies have shown that carbon fiber composite frames can withstand more than one million collision tests.
e. Increased freedom of structural design
Carbon fiber composite materials have the characteristics of anisotropy. This feature of composite materials can be used to arrange and lay fibers according to the direction and size of the load on the bicycle when driving. The flexibility of composite material manufacturing is conducive to the design of structures of various shapes. For example, streamlined bicycles can be designed according to aerodynamic principles, which are beautiful and practical, and easy to achieve the best cost performance. f. Good corrosion resistance
Polymer materials have good resistance to acid, alkali and industrial atmosphere, so bicycle frames made of carbon fiber composite materials have excellent resistance to acid and alkali corrosion.
French sports car manufacturer Bugatti and Dutch bicycle manufacturer PG have jointly released the world's lightest bicycle. The design of the bicycle is inspired by Bugatti's Chiron sports racing car. Made of carbon fiber composite materials, it weighs only 11 pounds (about 4.99kg). According to the American Architectural Digest, 95% of the bicycle is made of carbon fiber composite materials.
The Czech Technical University in Prague uses an automatic fiber winding process, combined with the integrated loop technology (ILT) developed by continuous fiber tube connection to produce bicycle frames and related component parts. ILT is a process that combines structural composite elements (such as tubes and connecting parts). All parts are formed in one piece and then assembled.
(2) Fishing rods
For fishing enthusiasts, how do you judge which fishing rod is the best? In summary, it mainly reflects three points: thin, light and strong. Therefore, a high-performance fishing rod needs to meet two characteristics: high stiffness and light weight.
With the emergence and development of carbon fiber, it provides high specific strength and high specific modulus for fishing rods, making these fishing rods lighter and lighter. Therefore, today's fishing rods are basically called "carbon fiber fishing rods."
Fishing rods made of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials are much lighter than GFRP products or plastics, which consumes less energy when withdrawing the rod, and the distance of withdrawing the rod is about 20% farther than the latter. Fishing rods made of CFRP are long and good, with high rigidity. Fishing rods can quickly recover after bending, making them more sensitive to bait delivery. Carbon fiber reinforced plastics can also be used to make fishing gear coils, which weigh no more than 140 grams, but have high fatigue strength and friction resistance, so they have a long service life.
Advantages of Carbon Fiber Composite Fishing Rods
Due to its lightweight and high stiffness characteristics, it is widely praised. In the fishing process, the advantages of carbon fiber fishing rods are reflected in the following aspects:
·Since carbon fiber fishing rods are lighter and thinner, they can be easily manipulated with one hand;
·Because of its light weight, it can prevent users from feeling tired;
·Carbon fiber can make fishing rods longer, and longer fishing rods mean that a wider fishing area can be covered;
·Carbon fiber fishing rods are more sensitive to fish;
Carbon fiber fishing rods have made anglers more and more enthusiastic year after year, and these carbon fiber fishing rods have also made fishing a popular entertainment activity rather than a basic sport, which undoubtedly created a new market for the field of carbon fiber.
(3) Tennis rackets and badminton rackets
The development trend of tennis rackets is to become larger and lighter. At present, most high-end and mid-range tennis rackets in the world are made of carbon fiber composite materials. Large tennis rackets need to be made of carbon fiber composite materials with light weight, high specific strength and high specific modulus. They can withstand stronger string tension than wooden racket frames to ensure that they do not deform when hitting the ball. Carbon fiber composite materials with good vibration damping properties not only give athletes a sense of comfort, but also allow the tennis ball to obtain a higher initial velocity.
Tennis rackets made of composite materials are light and strong, with high rigidity and low strain, which can reduce the deviation when the ball contacts the racket. At the same time, CFRP has good damping properties, which can prolong the contact time between the string and the ball, allowing the tennis ball to obtain a higher acceleration. For example, the contact time of wooden rackets is 4.33 milliseconds, that of steel products is 4.09 milliseconds, and that of CFRP is 4.66 milliseconds. The corresponding initial velocities of the ball are 1.38 km/h, 149.6 km/h, and 157.4 km/h, respectively.
Badminton rackets made of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials (CFRP) are characterized by light weight, high rigidity, and avoidance of handle breakage caused by insufficient rigidity of wooden products. They also have vibration reduction function and good resilience, which enables long hitting and returning distances and high ball landing accuracy.
(4) Golf clubs
In 1972, the United States first used carbon fiber composite materials to make golf clubs. By 1998, the number of carbon fiber golf clubs far exceeded that of steel clubs. Golf clubs are composed of a grip, a shaft, and a head. Golf clubs made of carbon fiber composite materials can reduce weight by about 10% to 40%. According to the law of conservation of momentum, when the total weight of a golf club is constant, a heavy head and a light shaft can increase the swing speed and allow the ball to obtain a larger initial velocity. In addition, carbon fiber composite materials have high damping properties, which can extend the hitting time and allow the ball to be hit farther.
(5) Kayak
Using Kevlar, an aramid fiber commonly used in the bulletproof field, on a kayak can ensure that the well-structured boat can resist cracking and breaking. When graphene and carbon fiber materials are used in canoes and boat hulls, they can not only increase the running strength of the hull and reduce weight, but also increase the gliding distance.
(6) Racing cars
In the 1980s, when the McLaren F1 team used carbon fiber materials to build its racing chassis, their racing cars were far ahead of the competition. As a result, McLaren's approach was imitated by other teams and then fed back to various supercars, high-performance cars and civilian cars.
Currently, the application of carbon fiber in the automotive industry is mainly divided into two types: dry and wet. Among them, dry carbon fiber has less residual resin during manufacturing, and the molded parts are stronger and more expensive, so it is widely used by major super luxury brands.
The resin content in wet carbon fiber is higher, so it is much cheaper than dry carbon fiber in terms of component strength and manufacturing cost. But whether it is dry or wet carbon fiber, it has better performance than conventional materials.
The body of the Ares AMR Pro uses a special fluorescent green paint, and also adds a carbon fiber decorative panel that can see the arrangement of carbon fibers. The lines of the whole car are more slender, and the side exterior mirrors have been changed to a more aerodynamic design. The rear of the front fender uses a multi-piece ventilation opening to better guide the air in the wheel arch. The side skirts that are almost close to the ground are connected to the front and rear wheel eyebrows. The gull-wing door design is also very charming. The 20-inch front wheels and 21-inch rear wheels are equipped with flat wide tires and rembo ceramic carbon fiber brake systems, making the whole car look more handsome.
The interior also copied the classic design of the F1 Formula One racing car. The integrated carbon fiber cockpit makes its whole car more rigid. The roof, cockpit and chassis adopt a carbon fiber integrated design. The rigidity of the whole car is stronger, and the road feedback is more real and more positive. The large area of suede material echoes the exposed carbon fiber material. The center console is equipped with a rounded rectangular steering wheel. There is an LCD display in the middle of the steering wheel to display the basic information of the vehicle. The two suspended LCD screens are tilted towards the driver's side. The one-piece carbon fiber racing seat is lightweight and can also provide better wrapping and support for the driver.
With the one-piece carbon fiber design, the rigidity of the whole vehicle is stronger, and the road feedback is more real and more positive. The large area of suede material echoes the exposed carbon fiber material. The center console is equipped with a rounded rectangular steering wheel. There is an LCD display in the middle of the steering wheel to display the basic information of the vehicle. The two suspended LCD screens are tilted towards the driver's side. The one-piece carbon fiber racing seat is lightweight and can also provide better wrapping and support for the driver.
