Technology and application of carbon fiber composite materials for sports equipment

Carbon fiber composites are inorganic high-performance fibers containing more than 90% carbon. It is a new material with excellent mechanical properties. When processing sports equipment, it can be integrally formed through reasonable design, saving a lot of combined frames and assembly frames, and reducing production costs.

At present, there are many molding methods of carbon fiber composite materials for sports equipment, mainly including winding molding, compression molding, RTM molding, pultrusion molding and other technologies.

Winding Technology

On a dedicated winder, the prepreg is evenly and regularly wound on a rotating mandrel, and the mandrel is cured and removed to obtain the product. The winding method is suitable for the manufacture of simple rotating bodies, such as cylinders, spheres and certain positive curvature rotating bodies or cylindrical products, and can also be used to manufacture non-rotating body parts.

Its remarkable feature is that the fibers can be arranged according to a certain rule according to the force of the product, so as to give full play to the strength of the fibers and obtain lightweight and high-strength products; High efficiency and low labor intensity; the disadvantage is that the mandrel needs to be removed after the product is cured, which is not suitable for manufacturing concave curved products. Golf clubs and fishing rods can be made this way.

Compression Molding Technology

The compression molding process is a method of curing a composite article by heat and pressure in a closed mold cavity. The forming mold is composed of two parts: a female mold and a male mold, and the reinforcing materials are generally chopped fiber mat, continuous fiber mat and fabric. The method has high production efficiency, accurate product size and smooth surface, and is especially suitable for manufacturing a large number of products requiring high precision and repeatability.

Products with complex structures can be formed at one time without the need for auxiliary processing (such as turning, milling, planing, grinding, drilling, etc.) that damage the product performance, and the appearance and size of the product are repeatable. The disadvantages are: the mold design and manufacture are complex, the initial investment is high, and it is easily limited by equipment.

RTM Molding Technology

RTM (Resin Transfer Molding, RTM for short) is a commonly used composite molding technology. The technique involves laying fibers or preforms into a closed mold cavity, injecting a resin liquid under pressure into the mold cavity, infiltrating the fibers or preforms, and curing and demolding the molded product.

The advantages of RTM technology are the ability to fabricate complex composite components with high quality, high precision, low porosity and high fiber content, and the ability to obtain smooth double sides without the use of gelcoat resins; short product design-to-production time, High production efficiency; RTM molds and products can be designed with CAD, easy to make molds, and a wide range of material choices.

RTM-molded components and pipe fittings are easy to manufacture locally reinforced or partially thickened components, and composite materials with core materials can be molded at one time; less volatilization during RTM molding is conducive to protecting workers and the production environment. RTM technology is now commonly used in the mass production of bicycle and rowboat shell components.

Pultrusion Technology

Pultrusion refers to a method of impregnating, extruding, heating and curing fiber bundles or ribbon-like fabrics, and cutting them into a certain length under the action of external force to manufacture a linear product with a specific cross-sectional shape and length. The impregnated continuous fibers are passed through a molding die with a certain cross-sectional shape, cured and molded in a mold cavity, or a gel is formed in the mold cavity, and heated and cured in a molded product.

The pultrusion molding process is simple and efficient; when the product is prepared by the pultrusion method, the reinforcing fibers are arranged in parallel along the axial direction, which can effectively utilize its strength; the fiber mat reinforcement material can be used to prepare isotropic products; the use of woven belts can improve the product's quality. Lateral strength.

Pultruded products have the characteristics of high strength, light weight, easy decoration, and good surface quality. These properties are suitable for many types of sports equipment and related applications such as fishing rods, bows, poles, ski poles and more.