How to make a Carbon fiber Arm bond?

[Hanryeol]

We are collecting some informations to manufacture Carbon fiber Arm. We used to use Steal pipe to make Arm.
To manufacture Carbon Arm, unite the bracket ,which is made by Aluminum, to the end of Carbon pipe but we don't know the information of carbon bond
so we are requesting you to help us.

We are appreciate if you notice us what the black strong bond which is commonly used to unite Carbon and the processing of metal is and where I can buy it. Besides,
if it have to be mixed, please tell us how we can make it.
(For exemple, how to used LOCTITE 9430. )

Because we are in korea and Carbon fiber is too unique to know the information.
Therefore, we are asking your help. We are looking forward to answering from you.

[,4lex S.]

A quick google search of "carbon fibre control arms" will turn up the link below. In fact, it turns up a number of potentially useful or interesting papers (also a Calpoly Pomona paper). They should at least give you enough product names and key words to get you started. From there it is up to you to do the research (a lot of adhesive companies have product engineers you can call and talk to locally). Also, I would imagine you would want to do your own joint testing, because I don't know how comfortable you are with trusting someone else's numbers to work with your own techniques.

There has to be some other threads on this already, so feel free to use the search button on the forums too ;)

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/74433/813136157.pdf?sequence=1

[Drew Price]

Good suggestions from Alex.

The company who makes Loctite, more specifically the line of Loctite Hysol structural adhesives has a Korean catalogue on their webpage. Their technical support engineers should be able to give you lots of information on the surface finish you need to have on your materials, how to clean the parts, how to mix the epoxy, and (very important for bonded joints) what sort of bond line thickness (the thickness of the layer of adjesive) and surface areas you will need to design for.

There are lots of websites with information on how to control the thickness of the adhesive and how the adhesive thickness affects the performance of the bond.

http://www.henkel.co.kr/index.htm

[DougMilliken]

... We used to use Steal pipe to make Arm. ...


Definitions of rod, pipe and tube:
http://www.fsae.com/forums/showthread.php?11557-Two-rod-straight-joints

I believe there is only one word in Korean that covers both tube and pipe...caused some language problems for us in the distant past.

[Bemo]

In German there is also only one word for tube and pipe, so I went through the same trouble until I realized the difference in English ;-)

In general I'd advise you to be very careful with the use of Carbon A-arms. If you do the simple bond-tube-to-milled-part-thing, you won't save that much weight compared to a properly dimensioned steel A-arm. If you want to save a lot of weight you have to laminate a complete A-arm and glue only the bearings in it. If you don't no much about the manufacturing about carbon parts, that's also a bad idea.

Last week at FS Germany quite a couple of teams had DNFs because of broken A-arms - all of them had carbon ones. Not a single steel A-arm failed ;-)

[Alumni]

Bonding carbon is no different than bonding metals. Try researching that.

I recommend the World Wide Web. If you're already discovered things like loctite 9430 you've done some work, now just finish it up, make some test samples, play around a bit, and bring all your findings to the design competition with you. Also look into the use of glass bead and decide whether it would be good for your application or not. Understand the biological dangers of it as well before you go playing with it if you decide to use it. (Hint - don't breath in the tiny shards of glass!!!)

Once you've done that if you have more specific questions we might be able to help more.

[Kevin Hayward]

Also look into the use of glass bead and decide whether it would be good for your application or not. Understand the biological dangers of it as well before you go playing with it if you decide to use it. (Hint - don't breath in the tiny shards of glass!!!)


Very true words. As a student (a stupid one at that) the year passed along pretty normally, until bodywork prep, and then you felt years being stripped away. Once a lot of the fairly safe materials we work with get very small they can do a lot of damage.

Kev