I am looking for a good comparison between carbon fiber and aluminum, we presently use aluminum in a lot of our manufacturing and may want to use cf. Does anyone have a simple breakdown of rough cost difference, weight savings, sheet thickness for a certain strength, that kind of thing, kind of struck-out looking on google unless I wanted a bike...Thanks in advance.
I would like to add to Steel Head's statement that fiber abrasion can also have very negative effects. When aluminum abrades it becomes a lubricant.
CF tends to be more expensive than aluminum, but has some radar reflective (actually absorption) properties. CF has has good tensile strength but is not as flexible as aluminum...tends to crack under strain more than aluminum.
Carbon Fiber. It's the more expensive one, but look at cars for instance. It's light weight, very strong, and great if you're a drifter or racer. I guess it depends on what you're making though.
If you google carbon fibre sheet you'll get more relevant hit. I found one which might help you with strength / mass comparison with the aluminium you currently using. Some more aspect you need to take into consideration: thermal resistance: carbon fibre does degrade quicker as temperature gets hotter. Water absorption: unless it's a really top quality carbon with good sealant resin, CF will absorb water and degrade in performance. Contamination by chemicals: see below. Oxidation: carbon fibre oxidise and looses strength as it oxidise. The oxidation level is quite low at room temperature but increases with temperature and also chemical contaminant Durability. as seen above CF will not have durability in time as you have with Aluminium. So be mindful as your product will not be as good in 10 years with CF as it is in Aluminium. Also failure mode with CF is much more difficult to predict, analyse and failure are not a controlled as Aluminium. CF will shatter when crack initiate from a minimal defect or chip.
