Carbon Fibre Reinforcement Weights and Weaves Explained
►Full project details and links www.easycomposites.co.uk/lear...
Further information and links ▼
In this tutorial we take a look at different types of carbon fibre reinforcement and discuss their various properties such as weight, weave and format, and tow size (k-count). By the end of the tutorial you should have a better understanding of how these properties impact the behaviour of the reinforcement and therefore how to choose the right carbon fibre fabric for your project.
All of the different carbon fibre reinforcements demonstrated in the tutorial are available to buy from the Easy Composites website.
Please note, EU customers should now use www.easycomposites.eu to buy products directly from our new EU subsidiary based in the Netherlands.
Woven Carbon Fibre Cloth
► 90g Plain Weave 1k www.easycomposites.co.uk/90g-...
► 210g 2x2 Twill 3k www.easycomposites.co.uk/200g...
► 210g Plain Weave 3k www.easycomposites.co.uk/90g-...
► 375g 5HS 6k www.easycomposites.co.uk/375g...
► 450g 2x2 Twill 12k www.easycomposites.co.uk/416g...
► 650g 2x2 Twill 12k www.easycomposites.co.uk/650g...
Unidirectional and Multiaxial Carbon Fibre
► 100g Unidirectional www.easycomposites.co.uk/100g...
► 250g Unidirectional www.easycomposites.co.uk/250g...
► 300g +/- 45 Biaxial www.easycomposites.co.uk/300g...
Spread Tow
► 160g Plain Weave www.easycomposites.co.uk/160g...
► 160g Twill Weave www.easycomposites.co.uk/160g...
Carbon Fibre Tow
► 3k Tow www.easycomposites.co.uk/3k-c...
► 6k Tow www.easycomposites.co.uk/6k-c...
► 12k Tow www.easycomposites.co.uk/12k-...
Unbelievable that clear, informative content like this is free. I love the internet. Great job Easy Composites!
Hi Alex, yes, for sure. The internet gets a bad rap these days but people forget how much great content there is out there. If we want to understand other subjects, we turn to KZhead ourselves, there really is some great knowledge being shared in a way that wasn't even possible 20 years ago.
@@easycompositestv You have to know how to search for information. When you master that craft you will be amazed by what you find!
@@easycompositestv I think you can take huge credit when it comes to people trying their had at moulding and manufacturing, your videos really are top class. Thank you! I’ve recently got my own garage and I’m very interested in trying it myself, I just need the courage to jump in!
Yes, the wonders of carbon fiber is exceeded by Easy Composites ethical policies of sharing knowledge/experience.
@@StefsEngineering Indeed Stef.
Still the BEST source of carbon fiber and infusion methods on the web. Many thanks EC!
Wow, no idea you guys did your own weaving. Always thought it was some mega corp. Excellent content, as always.
Actually the loom shots were taken up the road at weaver who produces our fabrics. The UK was the home of carbon fabric weaving and we're very lucky to have some great weavers right on our doorstep who produce our fabrics. They were very obliging and happy for us to pop round with our gear!
Amazing Video. Note that CF strands are ~7um not ~7nm! 1000 times larger!
I don't know who this guy is but I love him
It would be amazing to have a dedicated series covering the different grades, types of lay-up, matrix and way of curing the different materials! Anyway, truly simple and clear explanation on this one! kudos!
Fantastic video! Hands down the best single overview video of weave types I've ever seen. Keep it up!
I rarely comment, subscribe or like any video but you guys are just brilliant. I am about to make my first order.
The gold standard for how to present technical info. Thanks so much!
Thanks for the awesome feedback, really appreciate the comment!
@@easycompositestv well thanks. I watched the skinning the gun episode and it inspired me to make my own carbon fiber sim racing wheel which was a very rewarding experience. Thank you.
@@sim-racing2277 Its our pleasure, I'm glad it has turned out well for you :)
@@easycompositestv yeah still lots to practice but really pleased!
This channel is exactly what I needed. I owe you one
You sure know your business. The progression of this presentation is flawless. The info I got from this video prepped satisfied what I need to know to continue on a project I have in mind. Thank you.
Been searching for this video for two years. Finally, carbon fibres explained in a way that I can understand
Glad you found the video helpful. We hope to cover more topics in future videos.
@@easycompositestv A suggestion, you guys should offer some sor of course and certification on composite materials. I am a fresh mechanical engineering graduate and I have so many ideas and products that I want to develop, I see composites as the perfect material for me. Sadly, there was little to no content on composites in our courses. A course and certification from you guys would be really helpful for me and lots of other aspiring design engineers.
Hand shown the most informative video if seen this far. Thank you!
Once again you guys make a phenomenal video with so much helpful information! Much appreciated! Keep up the outstanding work!
Thanks for the kind words, we appreciate the feedback and encouragement 😃
After all these years... you are still producing THE BEST videos on composites. Thanks so much!
Glad you like them and hopefully we can continue to produce similar high quality videos.
Best video ever about composites! Congratulations!!
Great to see you back Easy Composites!
Dear friends, I just want to remind you about one of the main inventors of the carbon fiber. His name was Lesley N. Phillips and was a friend of my father (from Sweden, as me). He worked at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. So I played with small carbon fiber bars in the 60th as a kid.
I absolutely love this series if videos. The level if information that is jammed into each video is wonderful for someone like myself that has no real experience with CF.
Glad you like them!
Always incredibly good videos guys. Well done and thank you 🙏
This is a fantastic video! Brilliantly explained and very well produced.
Very clear and easy to follow, and answered a ton of questions...
Finally! I have been looking for such a video for a while now
I really love this channel, you always answer questions I didn't even know I should ask
We try our best to cover everything we possibly can so its great to hear you're learning things you didn't even know you wanted to!! :-)
One of the best educational videos I found so far. I saw one and then binge watched many. Thank you for the efforts.
Really appreciate the kind feedback! Thanks for binging our videos!
You answered many questions I've been asking the wrong people for many years. Thank you!!
Hi Andre, thanks for the comment! Glad we managed to answer some of the questions you had :)
Always excited when I see a new video from you guys.
Excellent video @Easy Composites - very clear, informative and great content showcasing the material, inspiring the next generation of composite engineers!
Thanks for the valued feedback, we genuinely appreciate it :-)
Excellent summary!
Thanks DarkAero, Inc - keep up the good work :)
Very useful! Also, I realized that a lot of diy'ers are using chopped fiberglass and cloth's wrong, and I can see exactly why they struggle to get some weaves to conform to a surface without cutting a bunch of tabs into the cloth. Thank you.
I love, love, love it, thank you so much. Im planning on doing some difficult contouring shaped on car door panels for mouldings. This helps me alot as to which type of weave fabric to work with and thickness. 😘🥰 I love this!!!!
That's great to hear Alfredo. Look forward to seeing how you get on with your project... all the best with it.
Awesome video. I learned everything you discussed completely from what I can tell. Informative. Concise. Quick video. I am actually disappointed you weren't going to keep going on longer and teach us more. Lol. 5/5. Would watch again except I don't think it would be necessary.
Excellent video, thank you Paul from Easy Composites!
i enjoyed that. its given me so many ideas for curved structures of my bass speaker box designs that i cant do with timber and have the smoothness, strength and weight. cheers i only stumbled on this site by chance. good work. cheers
Composites made easy! As always great content, thank you
Great content as always! It would be very interesting with a video on your take on repairing composites and different methods for this.
Its certainly something we'll consider although we have a lot of new videos and tutorials in the pipeline already. The only 'repair' videos we already have are the Kayak and the Fishing Pole Repair videos.
thank you so much
Always love seeing new videos from you guys. Great information delivered in a straightforward manner that makes it easy to comprehend. I would love to see you dive a little deeper like this into concepts like determining an optimal schedule and calculating strength needs for both solid laminate and sandwich. Or if you known of good, easily available software for designing a layup (read, not some multi thousand dollar per seat enterprise level software that is utterly overboard for a home DIYer)
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, we do get quite a few questions on this subject but it is a really difficult one to deal with. In the bike frame video we explained how - even for really experienced composites engineers - a combination of previous experience, gut instinct, and trial and error is still probably the main starting point for most laminate schedules. Of course these things can be modelled and calculated in CAD but there are SO many obstacles that, unless you REALLY know what you're doing and have very reliable data - the real life performance of a component can be so far from the predicted performance as to render the CAD/FEA less useful than an *educated* guess. Having said all that, a video that does go a bit deeper into this subject would be great, just need to figure out what we could do or show that would actually be useful and useable for people!
Easy Composites is number one in lectures
Your breakdown is masterful!!!!
This video is very facinating! I've never seen a video going in-depth about carbon fiber.
Thank you for your comment, we always appreciate great feedback like this :)
Thank you. @11:15 I was looking for an explanation for multiple layers of the same weight for a long time. Well done!
Hi John, we appreciate the comment. Glad you enjoyed the video and explanation!
This might be your best video yet. You guys do an awesome job.
Wow, thanks Kyle, appreciate your comments.
amazing video, i din learn all these during my composite modules lectures back in uni
Another excellent instructional video from Easy Composites!
Thank you for the kind comment, we've got more videos in the pipeline!
Another great truly informative video, I've learned a lot from you guys in working with CF, previously it was trial and error for projects, they were only vanity items so strength wasn't important, just being made from CF for the appearance. I've made some panels recently using a sandwich of thin spread 12k on the outside for cosmetic appearance with 2x2 and unidirectional either side of a foam panel in the middle, surprisingly strong and stiff seeing as I'm still experimenting and learning. The panel was used as a support bracket for a self made bag which I hang on my Brompton bike to carry my laptop and lunch. I use techniques learned from you guys and other youtube videos and a s a rank amateur with no proper workshop facilities, the results are impressive and improving each time. Keep up the good work, I'm keen to learn more as are I'm sure other viewers.
Great to hear about your project, glad you’re getting results that you can use and benefit from. Thanks for the feedback and we look forward to giving you some more ideas with future videos.
Interesting to learn about the different weaves, strand counts, weights and applications. Thank you.
I'm glad that you find the process as interesting as us!
It would be interesting to see a similar video on the different types on resin. How each ones cure, how strong they are and with which material or application they should be used. And as always: keep these exceptional videos up!! Cheers
Thanks Andy, yes, agreed, this would make an interesting and useful video. We’ll definitely keep it in mind.
Very nice and intressing information, it helps a lot to understand the diverence between all the fabrics. Many thanks from your employee in the Netherlands.
Haha, thanks Job! Nice to see you taking in the new content. I'm sure our customers in Europe appreciate your hard work :)
Excellent information. Thank you.
I go back to your bonnet video series all the time to remind myself of all the basic principles.
Hi Carl, I'm glad that you continue to find out bonnet video useful!
Amazing video, so well detailed & articulate too. Thank you so much for providing this. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
You’re welcome, we love producing these videos and sharing some knowledge!
@@easycompositestv A big credit to EC Ltd for sharing such knowledge and awesome videos. 😇
If I ever decide to make something from composite materials, this is the company that I am going to order from! ❤
Wow, another great content from Easy Composites! Would be awesome if you could cover laminates with different core materials as well.
We have a couple of videos planned about core material, again, quite a broad subject that's difficult to distil down into a video that would be watchable to most people we seem to get a good reception for the more technical content so stay tuned, this will certainly be covered fairly soon.
Brilliant explanation, thank you.
I came to KZhead to be entertained, but apparently I took a wrong turn and am now sitting in a lecture hall. No complaints! Great detailed information from a practical point of view. I love it!
Haha, cheers Ben; that’s KZhead for you!
A very clear, concise and accurate summary of (most of) the carbon fabric available. Certainly sufficient for the HammerChewer. A review of epoxies and other resins would be nice.
Thanks Carl, yes, we’ll do something on resins soon 👍.
A fascinating product. Excellent explanation, I think working with carbon fiber would be very interesting. Thank you, well done!
Glad you enjoyed Peter!
Great video - the best I've seen on the subject. Thank you, I'll be sharing this one!
Thank you for your great comment! Glad you enjoyed the video and we always appreciate when it's shared to others :)
great content, thank you for all these informations.
Unbelievably good video! Very informative! Thank you! I wish you had a warehouse in the US!
Hi Krisz, thanks, and we do too. We hope to be able to expand State-side soon!
This is incredibly great and valuable content. Thank you.
You’re welcome, we enjoy making and sharing it.
I really appreciate the videos.
Incredible video, very understandable, even for a stranger like me (love that accent 😉). You are doing a great job and I have been plenty satisfied of my purchases on your website. Thanks a lot for your work 👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you for your comment, great feedback like this is one of the reasons we keep making content :)
Exceptional clarity. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed how the video was presented Rick!
Wow ... that was a Masterclass for me.
thank you for sharing what would be considered as kitchen secret by many...
your videos are top class always... thank you very for the valuable information that you guys share and please keep doing that, you guys are the best
Hi Sahilj, thank you for your kind comment! We've got plenty more videos in the pipeline :)
@@easycompositestv eagle waiting for those
👍🔥 great upload Thank you very much. this would be great in the use of the Surfboard manufacturing industry, In conjunction with the use of Epoxy Laminating Bio Resin Etc.
Paul always bring the best composite tutorials on the web, what a talent
I'll be sure to let the man himself know; he's already back and busy in the video studio!! :)
We don't need TV. This was brilliant.
Haha, thanks. Proper telly!
Wonderful videos, full of solid information and very well described, thanks for sharing ! ! !
Appreciate the comment, glad you enjoy our videos!
Great job, your team is leaps and bounds ahead or your competitors…👍👍🤙
We're certainly trying our best :-)
I always learn something from you guys. Keep up the amazing work!
Glad you enjoyed the video Ben!
Epic video! Such good explanations. Can you make a video how the filaments are made?!? It will probably be the best video on that topic!
Hi, thanks for your comment. Unfortunately its not something we would have access to facilities to film fibre production ourselves
Excellent video again. Thanks for taking the time to make it. I would be interested to see how the actual carbon fibres are made.
Hi Car, thanks for the feedback. That would be a great video to make although might mean a bit of a trip away for us - there’s no carbon fibre production in the UK (lots of weaving of course) so not quite as easy for us to do anything on site but we’ll certainly keep it in mind.
@@easycompositestv Love the videos you make here so just keep doing that please! They are really good.
Fantastic! This is what KZhead is all about!!
Such an informative upload... thank you so much!🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼😎🍀🍀🍀
Fantastic information. I will touch base in a year or two to begin the process of re-manufacturing some plastic sports car parts in CF.
Great, look forward to it 👍
Thank you for all you do from TEXAS
Hi Robert, thank you for the comment! Glad you are enjoying the content :)
Always a nice set of video's to watch, Ive a lot of model boat moulds with steps for hatch seals , not a problem in grp, as i flood the areas with gel coat would like to see a way around tight curves and step down areas .Regards PJB
Love the videos thanks so much for doing them!
Glad you like them!
Hey thank you very much for sharing such knowledgeable videos. Please also share types of core materials and typical uses and applications of them.
Glad you liked the video, that might be a good subject for another video.
Great explanation. Great channel.
That is great guys. It woukd be great if you could also give a good explanation on the sort of strings, made with modulus properties and it's characteristics. Keep those videos coming, they are great
Hi Aleix, yes, that would be a good video to follow this one up with in the future. We will probably do on which covers wide range of fibre types including various strengths and moduli of carbon fibre but then also looking at other fibres like e-glass, s-glass, basalt, aramids etc.
Excellent! Thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed the video Chris!
excellent video. thank you.
Great, you should watch this video before the molding process. What you do on the surface will actually be of better quality. Thank you
Thanks for the feedback, yes, this is certainly a video to watch earlier on in a composites project if you're unsure about material selection. We're going to add a link to it to most of the fabric pages on our site to help customers earlier on in their project planning.
love this, looking for your future videos!
Thanks Pham, appreciated your support.
Thank you for the great overview!
Cheers Mike, you're welcome, we love doing these.
Appreciated. Confirmed some information, learned more too. Thanks
Hi Harry, thank you for the comment! Glad you managed to learn something from our video
Great video! I'm going to be carbon fiber skinning a jetski hull here soon! Having a hard time deciding on what product to use
We'd love to see the end product!
The company I work for Is the standard in this and he is spot on with what he is talking about
Thank you a lots ❤❤❤
Bro... These videos are amazingly good! There are a bunch of this kind of "informational" videos out there, usually with very incomplete/inaccurate info... I have watched a dozen of your videos in the last few days, as I want to make myself a little composite setup for RC planes and stuff like that. This was all very scary to me, but thanks to you, I feel like I'm becoming a pro at it myself!! I haven't even touched CF yet XD
Thanks for the great comment, I'm glad to hear they've been useful to you :)
Great again. You guys know how to tell stuff. Thanks
Haha, thanks. Appreciate the support.
incredible channel thanks! l buy from easy composites, wish they have small store in usa.
We really do want this to happen so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.
Fantastic video 🙂
Good video. Lot of information. Please make a video about the tow and GSM combination. Like 1K is used to weave what and all GSM ?
Had a class where we made a mockup of an airplane flap using fiber glass. We did get to see a real Spar made using carbon fiber. We used the same layup, bagging and baking techniques. I would love to have the space to use this stuff...