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PAN or PITCH based Carbon Fiber Lines:

Harper International is the world leader in providing one stop solution to design, fabricate and setup complete carbon fiber line or lines for new or existing enterprises. Harper International has more than 35 years of experience in carbon fiber industry in both design and development of PAN based carbon fibers and PITCH based carbon fibers process, equipment and plant design. Harper’s in-house designed and manufactured furnaces used in this process have enjoyed a world-class reputation for decades in the carbon fiber industry. Harper can offer a complete carbon fiber system for both pilot or scaled up carbon fiber plant

(production line) to produce high quality carbon fiber for your market and applications.

(Complete Pan Processing System)

What is carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber or carbon fibre is a thin long filament(strand) comprising of sheets of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal pattern aligned along the axis of the filaments length. Carbon fiber is also sometimes called graphite fiber. The diameter of the filament is mostly in the range of 5 to 10 microns. Thousands of these filaments or strands of carbon fiber are put together to form tow or yarn. The yarn is combined with epoxy resins and other thermosetting materials to form various composite materials for varied applications ranging from aerospace to windmills to sporting goods. Carbon fiber is sold in the market in the form of a tow/yarn to make composite material. The typical sizes of the tow/yarn are 1K (K=1000 filaments), 3K, 6K, 12K, 24K, 48K, 120K, 320K etc.

What is the source of carbon fiber?

Carbon fiber is mainly made from a polymer called polyacrylonitrile (PAN) by drawing/spinning a filament, passing through a specific oxidation heat treating, carbonizing heat treating and surface treatment process. The main spinning techniques, used in industry are wet spinning, dry spinning, air gap spinning and melt spinning. The various heating process steps include oxidation, pre-carburizing and carbonizing. The main surface treatment processes include electrolyte, washing and sizing. The other sources of the carbon fiber to produce from are petroleum or coal based pitch (pitch precursor) and rayon (cellulosic precursor).

History of carbon fiber?

The existence of carbon fiber came into being in 1879 when Thomas Edison recorded the use of carbon fiber as a filament element in electric lamp. In 1960’s, it was realized that carbon fiber is very useful as reinforcement material in many applications. Since then a great deal of improvement has been made in the process and product through research work carried out in USA, Japan and UK. In 1960’s, High strength polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber was first produced in Japan and UK and pitch based carbon fiber in Japan and USA.

 Why carbon fiber?

• Carbon fiber has a remarkably high strength and light weight compared to other traditional materials.

• It can be produced with very high modulus for applications such as spacecraft, arms etc.

• It is flexible in structural design

• It has chemical resistivity and non corrosiveness properties.

• It has good properties thermal and electric conductivity.

Carbon fiber applications:

Carbon fiber has proven to be extremely useful as reinforcement material to produce composite materials. Carbon fiber can be applied in components wherever light weight and high strength is required.

The carbon fiber usage in many applications is listed below:

● Air craft body and other parts

● Wind mill blades

● Military applications

● Decorations

● Tennis rackets, Fishing rods, Golf club shafts, etc.

● Automotive: sports vehicles body, brakes and other auto parts etc.

● Other applications: bicycle frames, pressure vessels, mixing in concrete, etc.

Carbon fiber business:

The market has experienced a good growth in recent years and there is very optimistic growth expectation in coming years. The average growth rate for the last 23 years was about 12%. For the last four years, carbon fiber world market is soaring. There is a huge demand for aerospace and windmill industry. Market analysts have predicted that world market for carbon fiber will reach $12 billion by 2011.