The Wondrous Potential of Carbon Fiber

Dave Warren, field technical manager at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is heavily involved in carbon fiber research. He shared his expertise as well as the state of the material in the marketplace during a Friday afternoon session titled Applications for Lower Cost Carbon Fiber.

According to Warren, while fuel economy has remained largely the same in the past few decades, vehicle weight has gone up. Recent developments (such as the energy crisis) may buck this trend, resulting in a desire to reduce mass, which carbon fiber is ideal for. As it stands now, despite having been included in vehicles since the 1970s, only about 1 to 2 percent of vehicles are made with carbon fiber material. In fact, market penetration in general was miniscule, but a breakthrough came in 2005 when companies like Boeing and Airbus made significant investments in carbon fiber for their products. Since then, production has increased tenfold.

But the material is still not ubiquitous in manufacturing due to its high cost and lower level of demand. Nevertheless, Warren says there are many markets in which carbon fiber has the potential to expand, including wind energy (longer blades can capture greater energy) and power transmission (replacing steel with 66 percent less mass). Currently, Warren continues his research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy division.