The 282 has a Kevlar Tracer, so you can see after cure the direction you did lay the cloth. If you ever have to work through that tracer, or decide to sand the surface with the tracer exposed, prepare for hell. I would use the cloth without the tracer, it will do the job. BTW, the Wicks cloth is 50" wide, that Advanced Composite Trader material is only 42" wide, which also may explain some of the price difference.
As was mentioned before, C-fiber for use in resin composites are always surface coated, otherways they do no wet and do not stick to the resin. The 282 cloth is made from 3K strands, which means there are 3000 filaments per strand. It is build from a 33MSI fiber, which is the most basic carbon fiber out there. It has a tensile strength of about 500 ksi. Other grades may have higher tensile strenght, or higher tensile modulus. If you would like to learn a bit about different grades of carbon fibers, go to http://www.torayusa.com/cfa/index.htm, which is the home of Toray Carbon Fiber (America). They are, btw, one of the major suppliers to Boeing (through Toray Composites in Seattle). You find some good information about different grades of carbon fibers there. And if you go to www.torayusa.com and hit the Toray Plastics (America) (TPA) link, you can see the building I spend my weekday daytime hours in :=) Wolfgang -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Brian Kraut Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 7:09 PM To: KRnet Subject: RE: KR> carbon fiber I am sure that all three sources move enough CF that expiration is not a problem, but perhaps the commercial grade dousn't have the coating to begin with. I need to call Wicks tomorrow anyway so I will ask what the difference is since they sell both. Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. www.engalt.com
