Carbon Fiber Nomenclature & Price Question

[Franziska]

Hi,

I recently got hands on a roll of woven carbon fiber with the following designation:

Cytec 5HS 50" 384 GSM T650/35 6K

There are about 45m on the left roll and it cost me 500€ (about 600USD) including shipping, which I do think, was a bargain.
Can anyone comment on the price?

We plan to built a carbon fiber shell (with some local foam panels) for our overweight and overbuilt dinghy from it and use it on a number of structural projects onboard Lady Rover.
To my understanding thats a fairly good material and the weave should make it relative easy to wet out with epoxy.
Possibly we'll vaccum bag it, but I'm not 100% sure on it yet.

I know roughly what I bought, but have a question on a detail, what does the 5HS stand for, what does the T stand for?

Cytec = Manufacturer

5HS = ?

50" = Must be the roll width of about 1.3m

384 GSM = Material weight in grams per square meter 384g/m²

T = ?

650/35 = Approximate tensile strength and modulus = https://www.fibermaxcomposites.com/s...heets/T650.pdf

6K = Number of untwisted filaments per a "roving" strand 6000 filaments

Correct? Any more clarifications?

[GordMay]

“5HS” refers to the Weave (5 Harness Satin).

Carbon fibers are made from precursors such as polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and rayon. The precursor fibers are chemically treated, heated and stretched, then carbonized, to create high-strength fibers. These fibers, or filaments, are then bundled together in tows which are identified by the number of carbon filaments they contain.
Common tow ratings are 3k, 6k, 12k and 15k. The “k” refers to a thousand, so a 3k tow is made of 3,000 carbon filaments. A standard 3k tow is typically .125” wide, so that is a lot of fiber packed into a small space. A 6k tow has 6,000 carbon filaments, a 12k has 12,000 filaments, and so on. This large number of high-strength fibers bundled together is what makes carbon fiber such a strong material.
Carbon fiber typically comes in the form of a woven fabric, which makes it easier to work, with and can give additional structural strength, depending on the application. Because of this there are many different weaves used for carbon fiber fabric. The most common are Plain, Twill and Harness Satin.
The satin weave was designed thousands of years ago, for making silk fabrics with excellent draping qualities, while also looking smooth and seamless. For composites, this drapability means it can easily form and wrap around complex contours. Because the fabric is so formable, it, has low stability. Common harness satin weaves are 4 harness satin (4HS), 5- harness satin (5HS) and 8 harness satin (8HS). As you increase the number of the satin weave, formability will increase, and fabric stability will decrease.
The number in the Harness Satin names indicates the total number of tows passed over then under. For 4HS, it will pass over 3 tows then under 1.
For 5HS, it will pass over 4 then under 1, and 8HS will pass over 7 and under 1.

[Franziska]

Excellent Gord. Thank you.
Spent about an hour searching for it and could not figure that out.

So, that means it should be relatively easy to drape when working with it, which is great. I was a little worried about it as wovens tend to be less drapeable than the multiaxials which I am accustomed to use.

On to the "T"?

[Spot]

Gruesse Franziska,

The T seems to be an indicator of the technology used to make the fiber, following Cytec to Solvay on searches:
https://www.solvay.com/en/chemical-c...roduct-catalog

If you use https://www.sollercomposites.com/Carbon-6K-Fabrics.html to compare your deal seems pretty good 30-40% discount, it is not a perfect match but close.

I use 3K 200GSM plain weave more often which I have bought both from Soller and my nice local shop.

MfG Spot

[Franziska]

Herzlichen Dank.

That's good news, mysteries solved, even better to hear that I did indeed get a good price.
Looking very much forward to boat building.

Have a fab weekend.

Originally Posted by Spot

Gruesse Franziska,

The T seems to be an indicator of the technology used to make the fiber, following Cytec to Solvay on searches:
https://www.solvay.com/en/chemical-c...roduct-catalog

If you use https://www.sollercomposites.com/Carbon-6K-Fabrics.html to compare your deal seems pretty good 30-40% discount, it is not a perfect match but close.

I use 3K 200GSM plain weave more often which I have bought both from Soller and my nice local shop.

MfG Spot