Carbon-fibre, you see it everywhere from exotic sports cars to fake versions and toyota rav-4 s and Corollas and you even see it in like
upscale bicycles and all that types of stuff
But why exactly is it such a premium material?
You know now that we're sitting in a 2020 Lexus RCF track edition
And there's carbon fibre from head to toe the question. Just kind of came to my mind
why exactly is this carbon material so expensive and so elusive and
That's the question that we're going to be answering in today's video
And we're going to be talking through all of the process of how carbon fiber is made and why exactly it costs so much
freakin money
So the long and short of it is that producing carbon fiber remains a very expensive and intense process
Even some 60 years after it was discovered as it turns out even at scale
There are certain aspects of the process
that continue to require lots of energy and time and as the idiom goes time is money, but
Beyond time the very beginning material is already quite expensive
carbon fiber production starts out with a material called poly acrylonitrile
Which is similar to a material used in clothing and carpets
According to research by the US Department of Energy buying this material is going to cost around three dollars per pound
Which seems reasonable until you realize that approximately half of this will be burned off during the manufacturing process
Which essentially doubles the price per pound it is estimated that carbon fiber would have to reach a cost of under
$5 per pound for widespread use in mainstream cars
Yet with nothing else factored in we are already well above that
As it turns out the burning process called carbonization
requires extreme heat upwards of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit
Not only does creating that amount of heat required tons of energy
But the byproduct is an environmentally toxic gas that needs to be treated
Both these things add lots of cost to the process
Now after this point what we have are only carbon fiber strands
Which like any fabric have to be woven to actually make something out of it by this point in the video
You shouldn't be surprised to find out that this part is also tricky
Since all the strands have to be exactly parallel and stretched
Evenly if even one of them is not it'll cause other strands to break which is why
Manufacturers usually use 10% more of the expense of carbon fiber strands than is technically necessary just to act as backup
Finally this woven material is mixed with a plastic resin and shaped into the shape of the part
Like clay in a kiln this also requires thermosetting with significant heat and over a pretty significant amount of time
So what we're left out at the end of the day is a material that is five times as strong as steel and weighs
70 percent less
But it also cost between ten and fifteen dollars per pound
That place is it well beyond the threshold of mainstream automotive
Applications at least for now and is why you'll mostly see it in exotic cars like BMWs. I line
Lamborghinis and high-end Lexus products like this our RCF track edition
Well guys that's it for this quick video about the expense of carbon fiber
This is a new kind of video for us
So make sure you head down to the comments section and give us some feedback of what you thought of it
We'll see you next time and take care!