World’s lightest carbon fabric

A new lighter variant of TeXtreme® Spread Tow carbon fabrics are to be presented at the upcoming JEC show in Paris, booth P25. The newly released TeXtreme® fabric is acknowledged to be the world’s lightest carbon fiber fabric, weighing in at 43gsm.

“The market has really been pushing for lighter carbon fabrics and we are continuously developing our product range to be able to offer optimized reinforcement solutions. This new 43gsm Spread Tow carbon fabric is an important innovation to further help the industry to reduce weight and improve mechanical performance.” says Andreas Martsman, VP Business Development of Oxeon. 

The 43gsm TeXtreme® fabric is based on a TC42S carbon fiber (Intermediate Modulus). The TeXtreme® fabric to be presented at JEC is a prototype and will be undergoing application tests during the spring and is expected to be ready for sales during the summer 2012. 

This TeXtreme® variant is designed for high-performance applications where weight savings are of utmost importance, such as F1. The previous lightest TeXtreme® fabric was 76gsm.

Oxeon has a flexible and tow size independent technology that enables development of ultra light composite reinforcement solutions tailor-made for specific application needs. TeXtreme® Spread Tow Reinforcements are produced using Oxeon’s novel Spread Tow- and Tape Weaving Technologies, rendering in optimized Spread Tow Tapes and Spread Tow Fabrics that enable production of composite parts that are 20-30% lighter with improved mechanical properties.