Uses and Applications of Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber uses for automotive racing and styling
Carbon fiber hood
Carbon fiber bonnet
Carbon fiber trunk
Carbon fiber boot
Cabon fiber lip
Carbon fiber fender
Carbon fiber uses for Sports and Recreation
| As Carbon Fibers' superior performances, high specific tensile
strength and specific modulus modulus, become familiar, sporting goods
manufacturers have endeavored to make use of the fibers for basic material
of their final products. In 1970s, fishing rods, golf club shafts and
tennis rackets began to be made of the fibers. In an introductory period,
only limited number of sports maniac welcomed the goods due to high price.
As price goes down, vast number of people suddenly started to buy those
high performance goods and now Carbon Fibers are an indispensable basic
material of sporting goods. Further on, the manufacturers have been developing
various sporting/leisure goods made of the fibers. JCMA is proud to illustrate
below a list of those goods. |
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Main usage and performance of carbon fiber |
| Usage |
Special Features
of Carbon Fiber Utilized |
| Fishing
Goods |
Fishing Rods,
Reels |
Light
in Weight |
Rigidity |
Sensitivity |
| Golf Goods |
Golf Club
Shafts, Club Heads, Face Plate |
Light
in Weight |
Rigidity |
Sensitivity |
| Rackets |
Tennis
Rackets, Badminton Rackets, Squash Rackets |
Light
in Weight |
Rigidity |
Vibration
Stability |
| Marine |
Yachts, Sail
Boats, Cruisers, Athletic Rowing Boats, Canoes, Sail Masts |
Light in
Weight |
Rigidity |
- |
| Others |
Baseball
Bats, Skis, Hockey Sticks, Ski Stocks, Bamboo Swords, Japanese Type Bows,
Archery Bows, Radio-control Cars, Table Tennis, Billiards, Gate-balls |
Light
in Weight |
Rigidity |
- |
|
This is one of the application items in which
you can make the most of the special features of Carbon Fibers (light
weight, high rigidity, high sensitivity).
Started with fishing rods for ayu, use of Carbon Fibers expanded to fishing
rods for small size fishes with very sensitive strikes. On account of
high rigidity (stiffness) Carbon Fiber rods, as something like extension
of one's arms, give fishers the feeling of even more subtle strikes.
This is one of successful examples of Carbon Fibers applied to daily used
gears.
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As golf shafts made of Carbon Fibers (carbon
shafts) are far lighter than those made of metal, the swing speed with
a given power becomes higher with carbon shafts than with metal shafts.
In the beginning, carbon shafts became popular among senior players and
ladies as an effective way to increase driving distance of them. Now carbon
shafts golf clubs are commonly used by most of professional and amateur
golf players. |
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Park Golf courses are being built now mainly
in northern districts of Japan.
Unlike usual golf courses, park golf courses do not require huge sites.
In many cases they are set up on lawn fields in various parks. It is a
light sport easily enjoyable by wide range of peoples from children to
adults. In order to improve scores, however, it requires also a certain
skill. More and more players are looking for better equipment. Also in
park golf, carbon shafts using Carbon Fibers are becoming more and more
popular now.
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Tennis is a hard sport requiring big quantity
of motion. Rackets that use Carbon Fibers can be by far lighter than those
that use wood or metal and can reduce burden on players. This is the reason
why they have become popular drastically. (Improvements in racket design
such as enlarged sweet spot also contributed to the popularization.)
It seems that they are more attractive to players also because of their
longer service life than wooden rackets'.
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By the use of Carbon Fibers, canoes have become
light enough to be able to be transported by passenger cars. By this,
canoe population seems to have increased.
Speed is most important for racing canoes. It is, therefore, advantageous
to use Carbon Fibers to attain higher speed by reducing weight.
Furthermore, Carbon Fiber canoes can cope with shooting down the rapids
due to their toughness.
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Carbon Fiber bats have gained public favor
mainly in amateur baseball.
The reasons for it are that the numbness of hands when hitting balls can
be reduced, speed of balls hit is higher and the flying distance becomes
longer, as well as that the hitting sound and hitting feeling are similar
to those of wooden bats.
On account of these advantages along with reduced availability of wood
resourses, this is one of the areas in which more popular use of Carbon
Fibers is expected.
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Other uses for carbon fiber:
sporting equipment
golf clubs
lacrosse and hockey shafts
paintball marker barrels and tanks
road bikes
mountain bikes
Skateboards
arrows
kayaks
yachts
paddles
canoes
rowboats
oars
photography equipment
wind generator blades
gears
bows for cellos and violins
utensils
carbon fiber chairs
high performance vehicles
concept cars
tuner cars
aftermarket motorcycle parts
aircraft (Airbus A380)
Radio Controlled Aircraft
Robotics
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