The "missing link" in Australia's carbon fibre capability, a wet spinning line (below), has been launched today in a ceremony at Waurn Ponds just outside Geelong. Carbon fibre combines high rigidity, tensile strength and chemical resistance with low weight and is used in aerospace, civil engineering, the military, cars, and also in competitive sports.
Only a handful of companies around the world can create carbon fibre, each using their own secret recipe. To join this elite club CSIRO and Deakin researchers had to crack the code. In doing so, using patented CSIRO technology, they've created what could be the next generation of carbon fibre that is stronger and of a higher quality.
[...] The wet spinning line machinery takes a sticky mix of precursor chemicals and turns it into five hundred individual strands of fibre, each thinner than a human hair. They're then wound onto a spool to create a tape and taken next door to the massive carbonisation ovens to create the finished carbon fibre. The CSIRO/ Deakin wet spinning line was custom built by an Italian company with input from the organisations' own researchers. The company liked the design so much it made another for its own factory and the the CSIRO/ Deakin machine has been described as "the Ferrari of wet spinning lines".
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 22 2017, @06:42PM
> we have decided to maximize personal freedom instead of efficiency in the services available to citizens
Name one community which has always been on the wrong end of those lofty goals...