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To: Abathar
That is another question, repairing the carbon fiber vs. aluminum skin. Since it is baked and essentially one big solid piece lets say some moron runs the forks of a forklift through the body of the plane, what is the repair cost and structural integrity afterwords compared to just replacing and re-riveting the aluminum skin of aircraft now?

Not a problem. Although carbon is a bit harder to work with than fiberglass, it isn't hard to repair at all. As a material, it's harder to work with, mostly because it's hard on tools such as drills and cutting implements. It also conducts, so static can be an issue.

One problem with carbon is when it is bent to the point of failure, it very often fails almost explosively. If, for incidence, you take a carbon tube, such as a windsurfer mast, and bend it to the point of breaking, it doesn't just snap like a twig. It explodes and delaminates. The result is very often not repairable. OTOH, if you punch a hole in a carbon sheet, such as a wing section or fuselage side, it's easy to repair.

29 posted on 07/27/2007 4:35:57 AM PDT by Thermalseeker (Made in China: Treat those three words like a warning label)
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To: Thermalseeker

Thanks - I own a tool and die shop so fixing metal I know all about, but I have never worked with carbon fiber before.


30 posted on 07/27/2007 4:42:27 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading the article since 2004)
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