Anyone seen a fairing like this before??

[Quan-Time]

carbon fibre is a bit "ambiguous" nower days. From you 4th pic you posted it looks like carbon mat.

A quick lesson on what "carbon fibre" is.
Carbon fibre is finer than hair size strands of carbon. Which usually contains graphite, and other sorts of stuff, depending on grade. The strands are NOT long like cotton reels, but rather very short, almost like needles. They are matted together, much like a "dreadlock" hippy hair-do.

You can buy kits of carbon fibre, almost identical to fibreglass kits. Lay the sheet out how you want, pour rezin on it.. set, trim off excess. Thats how 95% of all products are made. (the ones you and me buy that is).

When you get into the REALLY strong stuff, they use an "autoclave".. Think "kiln" that you use for clay models. The carbon is VERY pure, and needs to be stored in a warm environment. Its also slightly sticky. its already (usually) impregnated with the appropriate quality and quantity of rezin, thus the sticky nature of it. Once it hits oxygen, it starts to set / go off.

Put in the mould you want, seal in a special vacuum bag, heat the crap out of it for a day or so. You need to induce 2 things. The rezin to chemically react to the carbon, and get the carbon to almost "melt" and set in the new position of the mould.
End result is a part that will have a ring to it much like steel would. Its possible to make symbols for drum kits out of carbon fibre and they ring almost the same. Buts the musicians with good ears dont like the type of ring it makes.. weird. Also, the smallest crack makes them useless as they become "dead".

the TL;DR version
Yes its technically carbon fibre, its a "plain weave", but dont expect it to be any stronger than what you currently have. Still, its good bragging rights.. And i too like the style.

[lenny]

Wow. Thats one of the most incorrect descriptions of cf I've ever seen .Really, if you're going to give information on something,you should know what your talking about.

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

Well cough up the goods Lenny... Whats it about mate..... I had a mate who had a carbon fibre blow up doll he didnt like the ring either had a small crack n said it was pretty dead too needless to say he was a drummer anyway...

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

Come on Lenny The Bold and the Beautiful dont even keep us in this much suspense...If YOU know what your talkin about well fill us in mate come on....

[Kayla]

Come on Lenny The Bold and the Beautiful dont even keep us in this much suspense...If YOU know what your talkin about well fill us in mate come on....

You know the rules man,

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

yer come on I can tell you lenny I can tell you whatRidge is up to on on the Bold if you like :

[lenny]

Carbon fibre(simplified). The thread is made in a tower.At the top a container holds graphite(carbon)and chemicals(precursors).The mix is extruded through a die under heat and pressure and falls as a fine thread.It cools and is treated to improve its surface finish and wound on reels at the bottom.The thread is woven into cloth (like fibreglass) of different densities and weave patterns(satin,twill,plain etc).The cheapest/low performance option is wet layup.99% of roadbike carbon is wet layup.Thats not what you see on tv.Next step up is vacuum bagging.The layup is covered with a thin nylon release sheet with small closely spaced holes.On top of this goes an absorbant mat.The lot is sealed in a bag and connected to a vacuum pump.The bag collapses into the mold and compacts the carbon against the mold surface and squeezes excess resin into the absorbant mat.Much better.Now we get to REAL carbon fibre, prepreg. The cloth is passed between rollers and an optimum amount of heat curing resin is impregnated into the cloth.The cloth has to be stored frozen and has a limited shelf life. It can be vac.bagged in a normal type oven or the ultimate, an autoclave(think pressure cooker).The maximum pressure you can get with vacuum alone is ~14.5psi but pressurising the oven increases this and raises the carbon/resin ratio even higher.Thats what you see on tv.

[Mincehead]

He`s dead right you know folks.
I`ve watched carbon products go through the process of manufacture,in fact I`ve a pal who makes the carbon end caps and sleeves for most of the UK`s major can manufacturers,they make MASSIVE profits on it when they market the finished cans too I might add!

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

well my drummer mate said it wasnt much of a wet lay up unless he helped it along and as for on T.V. wel I think Ridge on the Bold is thinkin on making some Carbon Fibre underwear... I think they must of got the idea from this site