Carbon Fiber Systems

PAN or Pitch based Carbon Fiber Lines:

Harper International is the world leader in providing one-stop solutions for the design, fabrication and setup of complete carbon fiber line or lines for new or existing enterprises. Harper has more than 35 years of experience in the carbon fiber industry and in the design and development of PAN-based carbon fibers and Pitch-based carbon fibers process, equipment and plant design. Harper uses in-house designed and manufactured furnaces and can offer a complete carbon fiber system for both pilot or scaled up carbon fiber plants to produce high quality carbon fiber for your market and applications.

Complete PAN processing system

Carbon fiber

What is carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber, sometimes called graphite fiber, is a thin long filament (strand) comprising sheets of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern aligned along the axis of the filaments' length. The diameter of the filament is mostly in the range of 5 to 10 microns. Thousands of these filaments or strands of carbon fiber are put together to form tow, or yarn. The yarn is combined with epoxy resins and other thermosetting materials to form various composite materials for varied applications ranging from aerospace to windmills to sporting goods. Carbon fiber is sold in the market in the form of a tow/yarn to make composite material. The typical sizes of the tow/yarn are 1K (K=1000 filaments), 3K, 6K, 12K, 24K, 48K, 120K, 320K etc.

What is the source of carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber is mainly made from a polymer called polyacrylonitrile (PAN) by drawing/spinning a filament and passing it through a specific oxidation heat treating, carbonizing heat treating and surface treatment process. The main spinning techniques used in the industry are wet spinning, dry spinning, air gap spinning and melt spinning. The various heating process steps include oxidation, pre-carburizing and carbonizing. The main surface treatment processes include electrolyte, washing and sizing. Other sources of carbon fiber are petroleum- or coal-based pitch (pitch precursor) and rayon (cellulosic precursor).

Carbon fiber material

What is the history of carbon fiber?

The existence of carbon fiber came into being in 1879 when Thomas Edison recorded the use of carbon fiber as a filament element in an electric lamp. In the 1960s, it was realized that carbon fiber is very useful as reinforcement material in many applications. Since then, researchers in the USA, the UK and Japan have greatly improved the process. In the 1960s, high-strength PAN-based carbon fiber was first produced in Japan and the UK, and pitch-based carbon fiber was first produced in Japan and the USA.

Why use carbon fiber?

• Carbon fiber is remarkably strong and lightweight
  compared to other traditional materials.
• It can be produced with very high modulus for applications
  such as spacecraft, arms, etc.
• It is flexible in structural design.
• It has chemical resistivity and non-corrosive properties.
• It has good properties of thermal and electric conductivity.

Carbon fiber material

What are some carbon fiber applications?

Carbon fiber has proven to be extremely useful as reinforcement material to produce composite materials. Carbon fiber can be applied in components wherever light weight and high strength are required, such as:
• Aircraft body and other parts
• Windmill blades
• Military applications
• Decorations
• Sporting Goods
  (tennis rackets, fishing rods, golf club shafts, etc.)
• Automotive
  (sports vehicles body, brakes and other auto parts, etc.)
• Other
  (bicycle frames, pressure vessels, mixing in concrete, etc.)

What is the future of the carbon fiber business?

The market has experienced a good growth in recent years, and there is very optimistic growth expectation in coming years. The average growth rate for the last 23 years was about 12%. For the last four years, the carbon fiber world market has been soaring. There is a huge demand in the aerospace and windmill industries. Market analysts have predicted that the world market for carbon fiber will reach $12 billion by 2011.