What exactly is carbon fiber, and what makes it amazing? I see all these fancy cars like Audi and BMW using carbon fiber, but can’t any company just replicate that pattern?
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Carbon fiber produces a unique pattern, but that isn’t what makes it special.
Carbon fiber is carbon atoms that are bonded together in crystals in a way that makes it very strong. What you’re seeing on cars is carbon fiber-reinforced polymer. Basically carbon fibers baked inside plastic resin which makes a part made out of it relatively strong, but very, very light.
Any company could use carbon fiber, but it is typically used on high-end sports cars because of the higher cost than typical plastic parts used on regular cars.
Carbon fibre is a short term for products called carbon fibre reinforced polymer.
Basically it’s a bunch of strands of carbon fibre (which is really strong and stiff) oriented in a bunch of different directions and held together with a binding polymer, like an epoxy.
The advantage is that it’s very strong relative to its weight, the disadvantage is it can fail catastrophically (literally, it can shatter.)
Any company can make components out of carbon fibre… it just costs more.
Carbon fibre isn’t the pattern, it’s the composite material, mats of woven incredibly strong carbon filaments encased in tough resin.
The pattern is a byproduct of this process (it’s the weave of the topmost mat), and is just visibly appealing and looks fancy, so they leave it unpainted.
So yes, ANY person or company can replicate the pattern and make composites. It’s just not a particularly cheap one, the carbon fibre mats are expensive to make. The appropriate resins aren’t cheap either.
Think about fibreglass and how it’s made. Now replace the glass fibres with strands of carbon that are many, many times stronger. Now you’ve basically got carbon fibre.
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