Question: @Rhys do you help build carbon fibre for cars? How do you make and break it?

Rhys Archer answered on 23 Jun 2015:

Carbon fibre composites can be used to make car parts yeah, though I don’t specifically design carbon fibre composites for this purpose. I make carbon fibre composites and break them with different toughening techniques to see what creates to strongest carbon fibre composites. I make them by layering carbon fibre fabric with different pieces of material and then binding them together with a substance called resin. I cure this (oven cook it) until it produces a hard panel of carbon fibre composite. Then I cut it into small samples using a diamond saw, then test these in a machine which drops a heavy weight onto it from a certain height and I measure the resistance the material has to the impact damage, and compare it to other samples that have been toughened in different ways.