Carbon Fiber

Slovakian mechanical engineer Braňo Mereš has created some pretty nifty one-off bicycle frames over the past several years. Some of his construction materials have included riveted-together strips of titanium, a woven bamboo fiber/epoxy resin composite, and carbon fiber rods. With his latest creation, the X-9 Nighthawk, he has taken yet another approach – the frame is made from sandwich panels that have an aramid core and carbon fiber skins. Read More

Thanks to research currently being conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, our unwanted plastic bags may one day be recycled into carbon fiber. Not only that, but the properties of the fibers themselves could be fine-tuned, allowing different types of carbon fiber to be created for specific applications. Read More

The DS4 Racing concept from Citroen promises much - a light stytlish 256 bhp turbocharged pocket rocket with a decade of WRC domination behind its design. Read More

Ferrari F40 fans might wish to put the date July 22 in the calendar now, maybe even if you live somewhere a long way from Silverstone. The annual three-day Silverstone Classic is claimed to be the world's biggest classic motor racing festival. Held at the Silverstone F1 circuit in mid-July, the central focus of the massive festival is the historic racing which features the cream of motor racing drivers and cars from every era of motor sport. Whenever there's a significant automotive anniversary, such as the 50th anniversary of the E-type Jaguar, there's also a mass gathering of vehicles. This year the festival is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Ferrari F40 - already more than 50 of the original 1315 F40s produced have RSVP'd for the event, guaranteeing a world record. Read More

Spartanburg, South Carolina, is home to one of the largest privately owned chemical and textile research establishments in the world, Milliken & Company. The firm's innovative research that combines textiles and chemistry has now produced a thermoplastic composite called Tegris that is cheap, recyclable and tough. These properties make Tegris an attractive alternative to (or composite partner for) carbon fiber, and it's already proving to have wide ranging applications in the automotive, military and sporting industries. Read More

Sail technology has come a long way since the days tall ships were carried along by billowing clouds of canvas. In fact, new aerodynamic discoveries coupled with exotic materials have turned modern sails into veritable works of high tech art. Today, sailmakers know that the less a sail distorts (through stretching, shear, compression or shrinkage) the more force or drive remains available to power the boat - especially helpful when you're in a close race for that final buoy. Now, the innovative designers at North Sails have woven an interesting array of tricks into their unique new 3Di line of "canvas" - laminated, heat-molded sails that hold their shape so well, they come close to performing like rigid airfoils. Read More

When a cycling helmet is priced at nearly US$900, a pair of cycling gloves at over US$300 and a water bottle at US$105, it's a sure thing that the bike that goes with them is going to be really, really expensive. Such is the case with the new Bianchi by Gucci carbon fiber two-wheeler, which sees two Italian veterans come together for the release of this US$14,000 bike. Read on for a rundown of the key specs. Read More

When the Wright Brothers first took to the skies more than hundred years ago they did so with an aircraft made with a fabric skin. Over the years a variety of materials have been used including sheet metals such as aluminum and titanium, and even ceramics. A fabric of sorts has now returned in the form of carbon fiber, a composite material that offers greater strength-to-weight ratio than virtually anything else. While airplane manufacturers have used carbon fiber in airplanes for some time, its use is on the rise due to the material's durability and rigidity ... and with the advent of new manufacturing processes such as Advaero's Heat Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Method (HVARTM), this looks set to continue. Read More

Carbon fiber is nothing new to the automotive industry. Race teams and exotic automakers have been using it to decrease weight and boost performance for years. However, due to the great expense of production, carbon fiber hasn't yet extended past these top-end applications. With a new partnership, GM seeks to bring the advantages of carbon fiber to mainstream automobiles. Read More