Carbon fiber bed for GMC

agesilaus wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:

agesilaus wrote:
I don't have any Carbon Fiber gear but I was under the impression that it was impact sensitive. Plus they don't give a price.

I hope not. They make motorcycle helmets out of it.
I'm sure there are different "ingredients" depending on the purpose and required weight savings.

I just read up on it a bit. Normally it is very strong in one direction, if you want to make it strong all around then you have to add more resin, which makes it weaker. I would assume the deck on a P/u bed would need to be strong all around. For helmets it absorbs energy as it is crushed which makes it more impact resistant. Of course I'm not a Material Engineer so I'm sure there are ways around the problems, but at what cost?

In a fiber reinforced resin material the fiber provides most of the tensile strength while the resin holds the fiber together and provides compressive strength. The fibers can be laid all in one direction or they can be mixed up. A lot like a board vs plywood. A board is generally stronger when being used lengthwise but is easily split if the stress is applied sideways. The plywood is fairly consistent in all directions. For best results with fiber reinforced material you need to know how the stress will be applied and lay the fibers accordingly. Tires often use layers of belts run at 90 degrees to each other while some things made from fiberglass use strands that have been cut into short lengths and then blown in randomly. Both methods work but the carefully laid fibers obviously are more efficient and weigh less. The chopped fibers are cheaper and easier to install. I guess that we will find out in a year or so if GM knows what they are doing but I would bet that they do, especially after the sales failure of the last non-metallic bed they offered.