Carbon fiber uses for automotive racing and styling
Carbon fiber uses for Sports and Recreation
Carbon Fiber has several unique physical properties such as superior performance, high specific tensile strength, and specific modulus. It has become a familiar composite material that is used by sporting goods manufacturers that have endeavored to make use of the fibers for basic material of their final products. In the 1970s, fishing rods, golf club shafts and tennis rackets began to be made of carbon fiber and fiberglass composites.
Although initially discouraging due to a higher price, once the enhanced performance of the materials used became evident, and the price reduction that has come about since, more manufacturers have moved towards carbon fiber and composite manufacturing for their products. The current price has gone down substantially as a vast number of people suddenly started to purchase these high performance goods. Now carbon fibers are an indispensable basic material of sporting goods. Further on, the manufacturers have been developing various sporting/leisure goods made of the fibers.
Fishing Rods
This is one of the application items in which you can make the most of the special features of Carbon Fibers (light weight, high rigidity, high sensitivity).
Started with fishing rods for ayu, use of Carbon Fibers expanded to fishing rods for small size fishes with very sensitive strikes. On account of high rigidity (stiffness) Carbon Fiber rods, as something like extension of one’s arms, give fishers the feeling of even more subtle strikes.
Golf Clubs
As golf shafts made of Carbon Fibers (carbon shafts) are far lighter than those made of metal, the swing speed with a given power becomes higher with carbon shafts than with metal shafts. In the beginning, carbon shafts became popular among senior players and ladies as an effective way to increase driving distance of them. Now carbon shafts golf clubs are commonly used by most of professional and amateur golf players.
Park Golf
Park Golf courses are being built now mainly in northern districts of Japan.
Unlike usual golf courses, park golf courses do not require huge sites. In many cases they are set up on lawn fields in various parks. It is a light sport easily enjoyable by wide range of peoples from children to adults. In order to improve scores, however, it requires also a certain skill. More and more players are looking for better equipment. Also in park golf, carbon shafts using Carbon Fibers are becoming more and more popular now.
Tennis Rackets
Tennis is a hard sport requiring big quantity of motion. Rackets that use Carbon Fibers can be by far lighter than those that use wood or metal and can reduce burden on players. This is the reason why they have become popular drastically. (Improvements in racket design such as enlarged sweet spot also contributed to the popularization.)
It seems that they are more attractive to players also because of their longer service life than wooden rackets’.
Canoes
Baseball Bats
Carbon Fiber bats have gained public favor mainly in amateur baseball and Softball.
The reasons for it are that the numbness of hands when hitting balls can be reduced, speed of balls hit is higher and the flying distance becomes longer, as well as that the hitting sound and hitting feeling are similar to those of wooden bats.
On account of these advantages along with reduced availability of wood resources, this is one of the areas in which more popular use of Carbon Fibers is expected.
Other uses for carbon fiber:
Carbon Fiber Skateboard – Hocky and Lacrosse Shafts – Carbon Fiber Oars
Wind Generator Blades – Carbon Fiber Cello – Carbon Fiber Chair
Photography Equipment – Airbus A380 – Concept Car
Utensils – Mountain & Road Bikes – Paddles
Oars – Radio Controlled Aircraft – Robotics
sporting equipment – paintball marker barrels and tanks – arrows – yachts – rowboats – gears – High performance vehicles – Sport tuner cars – aftermarket motorcycle parts – Etc.