A Primer on Carbon Fiber Hoods

Carbon fiber is a material that has been highly utilized by the military and aerospace business. Currently, it is accumulating popularity in the sports car industry because of lightweight carbon fiber hoods. Carbon fiber is a strong material, which can resist a whole lot of damage. It is also very light so it won't weigh down your car too much.

So how is carbon fiber made? There are two methods to yield carbon fiber items. The more cost-efficient and simpler way is called the "wet" lay-up process. You lay out dry fibers in a mold and then you pour resin on top. You evenly distribute the resin over the fibers. From there you add in more resin depending on your preference for thickness.

However, this particular method has to be performed with correctness. It is imperative that the resin be distributed evenly. Otherwise, some portions of the fiber will be resistant than others due to the varying amounts of resin. This means that carbon fiber hoods won't be as strong as they need to be.

The other method produces more consistent carbon fiber hoods, but it requires more labor. It's titled the "impregnated lay-up" process. The past 20 years has seen its development and continual improvement. This process yields products, which are on average 25% stronger than those produced by the other method. This process requires the fibers to be impregnated with resin.

Afterwards, the resin-fibers are put into spools before being frozen. The freezing stops the material from curing too quickly. You can cure it with a vacuum bag compaction and then they receive oven treatment.

In the 1970s, the automobile business began to employ the use of carbon fiber. The reason for this is because the car industry is being pushed to manufacture "green" cars, which have better mileage. Carbon fiber hoods cost anywhere from $5 to $10 and is very cost-efficient. And in general, it has been found that carbon fiber hoods increase the performance of cars.

Now, carbon fiber isn't limited in its patrons to just the aerospace and military industries. More and more fields are finding uses for it, especially the automobile business. So we're seeing a high-rise in its popularity in a plethora of capacities. And we're now encountering many more cars with carbon fiber built into it; especially carbon fiber hoods.

Carbon fiber hoods are sold in many online stores. Talk to your mechanic and learn a bit more about them if you're not sure if they'll be right for you. When you've decided, do a search on the web for some quality carbon fiber hoods for your car.