Railways: Gears fabricated from carbon fiber reinforced nylon thermoplastic molding compound have been used in gearboxes of railway engines.
The front end of the Japanese Shinkansen high speed train is based on a PMI core and carbon fiber/epoxy laminates.
Engineering and texile applications: Fabricating the rotor of a wire bunching machine from cfrp lowers the weight and allows higher operating speeds.
Icotec have developed a range of composite floating anchor nuts, which snap into a base plate mounted on a structure. One version is based on a carbon fiber /PEEK construction, providing low weight and is able to match the coefficient of expansion of the surrounding PEEK composite material.
Structural work: Carbon fiber reinforced composites have been used for structural upgrade and life extension of cast iron struts and cfrp has been used for strengthening of tunnel supports in the London Underground, where a 0.5 ton carbon fiber beam carries the same load as a 9 ton steel beam.
Robot arms: Lightweight carbon fiber composite has made its debut on the top entry beam of a robot arm.
Rollers: High modulus carbon fiber can be used to improve the performance of industrial rollers and limit deflection.
Turbine blades applications:
Wind turbine blades: Wind based energy is currently the lowest cost per kWh of all the renewable energy source, but remains more expensive than hydrocarbon based systems. Europe has 75% of the world’s existing wind turbines and in 2003, there were some 1030 turbines operating in the UK, generating 588 MW with the intention of increasing output of offshore wind farms to 6 GW by the year 2010. The british wind energy association calculates the present cost is about 2.5p per kWh, which is approximately the same price as a coalfired plant. It is estimated that there is a total world capacity of some 23,300 MW and an output of 1.75 MW would provide about 1000 homes with electricity, saving more than 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
Typical operating sites for wind turbines are mountainous or coastal areas. Wind speeds vary with geographic location and are typically 6m/s in Europe, but could be 11 m/s in New Zealand, producing virtually twice the annual production. It is recommended that the tower is a minimum of 10m above ans situated twice that distance from any obstructions, and the higher the tower, the higher the wind speed. Wind turbine power plants have become quite reliable and two blade units have given way to a three blade design.
About 90% of wind turbine manufacturers are European, with Denmark, Germany and Spain taking active roles. Blades have to be resistant to destruction in high winds by shedding load and large blades tend to use a pitch stall mechanism. The blade is turned edge-on into the wind until they are driven into an aerodynamic stall, diverting the wind turbines this would be too expensive and a solution has been found by tailoring the blade’s aero-elasticity using carbon fiber, laid off axis by 15°, ensuring that the leading edge of the blade is stretched in higher winds, tending to twist the blade.