![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/carbon-fibre-bmw-i3-300x211.jpg\")
BMW i3<\/p><\/div>\n
Of course, there are many pieces that make up a car\u2019s whole, many of which there are components which can also be made up of carbon fibre, and these are actually more prevalent in different forms and measures throughout the motoring industry, particularly in high-end luxury cars.\u00a0 In some of BMW\u2019s and Porsche\u2019s latest premium cars, carbon fibre has been introduced in various arrangements within the vehicles\u2019 body components.\u00a0 Obviously, the rarer the part, then it will have quite an expensive price tag attached.<\/p>\n
Then there are multiple smaller workshops and larger businesses dedicated to creating special automobile parts and designs made from the composite material carbon fibre. \u00a0Some of these components might be a certain air diffuser or spoiler to make the car look more aggressive or more aerodynamic.\u00a0 Some of these businesses even make carbon fibre interior wraps with a distinctive pattern to make an individual\u2019s car stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n
So, what is carbon fibre?<\/p>\n
A quick science lesson first to help us understand: Carbon is number six on the periodic table, and so the carbon atom consists of 6 protons, 6 neutrons, and 6 electrons.\u00a0 Two of the 6 electrons fill up an electron shell close to the carbon atom\u2019s nucleus, while the other four electrons sit in a half empty electron shell around the outside.\u00a0 These electrons running about on the outside shell are known as valence electrons and are the key to carbon\u2019s amazing and incredible properties.\u00a0 Any electrons in an atom\u2019s outer shell are involved in taking part in forming chemical bonds.\u00a0 How many bonds these electrons are involved with depend on how much room there is in the outside shell.\u00a0 What makes carbon so amazing is that it has got space for four other electrons to make its outer shell full.\u00a0 This attribute makes carbon a four-way connector that can link atoms together.<\/p>\n
A polymer is any material that is made of long, repeating chains of molecules.\u00a0 So, carbon can build up straight chains of carbon atoms, carbon chains with branches, and even carbon chains that are joined end to end to make loops!\u00a0 So, a carbon polymer is made up of chains and chains of carbon molecules that are linked up in a scaffolding-type structure.\u00a0 Carbon can bond to itself, but, when it doesn\u2019t, the end of the carbon chains can terminate with other elemental atoms.\u00a0 For example, a carbon chain can finish up with a small hydrogen atom, which makes these chains slippery like in oils.\u00a0 Carbon chains can also connect to other groups of elements, making them a specific \u2018functional group\u2019, each group having a different chemical property.<\/p>\n
Graphite is a crystalline form of the carbon element.\u00a0 Individual layers of graphite are some of the strongest structures that we know about in the universe.\u00a0 Carbon fibre material is made up of individual layers of graphite, which on their own are quite slippery.\u00a0 Carbon-fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites (also known as carbon-fibre laminates) are made up of woven layers of nearly pure carbon fibres that are bonded together by a hardened plastic like an epoxy resin. CFRP composites are therefore extremely strong and stiff.<\/p>\n
A stretched carbon fibre is up to five times the strength of steel, as durable as steel, but only a quarter of steel\u2019s density.\u00a0 Being this strong and much less dense than steel makes carbon fibre a lighter and stronger material than steel.\u00a0 On top of being extremely strong and lightweight, carbon fibre is also high in chemical resistance, has a high stiffness, has low thermal expansion, has a low weight to strength ratio, and is tolerant of excessive heat.\u00a0 These are the reasons why carbon fibre is so sought after in the motor racing arena and in high-grade luxury sports vehicles?\u00a0 These amazing properties make carbon fibre a very popular material for use in aerospace, military, recreational, as well as in automotive industry applications.<\/p>\n
As CFRPs become more readily available, the trickle down effect will see it being more and more a part of a new mainstream motor vehicle, EVs included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It may come as no surprise to you that the amazingly strong and lightweight material \u2013 carbon fibre \u2013 has been used in some of the high-end sports cars and racing cars.\u00a0 Cars like the Koenigsegg Agera, the McLaren Senna, Porsche\u2019s 918 Spyder, the Ferrari LaFerrari, Alfa Romeo\u2019s 4C, and BMW\u2019s i8 use a carbon-fibre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5120,86,57,4049,65,4014,3071],"tags":[7510,5599,670,7508,669,7507,7514,7504,7505,80,7512,7513,7509,7506,7511],"class_list":["post-14234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-automotive-design","category-blog","category-manufacturer-news","category-new-cars","category-safety-2","category-sustainabilitygreen","category-technical","tag-automotive-industry-materials","tag-carbon","tag-carbon-fiber","tag-carbon-fiber-polymer","tag-carbon-fibre","tag-carbon-fibre-polymer","tag-carbon-fibre-strength","tag-cfrp","tag-cfrps","tag-fuel-efficiency","tag-light-weight","tag-lightweight","tag-lightweight-materials","tag-ploymers","tag-safetym-car-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14236,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234\/revisions\/14236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}