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Hi there, following on from the JB weld thread which brought this up, I have to ask this question.
I have long wondered about graphite products. Here in the UK graphite products are either pencil "leads" or lubricants, the exceedingly low cohesive strength that makes it good for those purposes would make it terrible for making structural things.
As a kid I did however have Wilson (an American company) tennis and badminton racquets that had graphite written on them They were lighter than wood or alloy, but much cheaper than European carbon racquets. As what I know as graphite would have snapped at the first stroke I knew it couldn't be the same thing, Graphite is a is a form of carbon, like coal and diamonds are, so I thought maybe Americans called carbon graphite (like calling their liquid petroleum fuel "gas", instead of petrol), but once the internet came out I found that Americans call carbon fibre carbon fiber, which put that theory to bed.
I did break one and it was black inside, but not fibrous or stranded as proper carbon fibre is, and solid, not hollow molded, it was solid and had granular structure like a Graupner carbon prop indicating that it was injection moulded CRP explaining the large price difference between it and carbon fibre raquets. My theory is now that Americans call injection moldable powdered or extremely short strand CRP graphite instead of CRP. Can anyone confirm or deny this.
I have long wondered about graphite products. Here in the UK graphite products are either pencil "leads" or lubricants, the exceedingly low cohesive strength that makes it good for those purposes would make it terrible for making structural things.
As a kid I did however have Wilson (an American company) tennis and badminton racquets that had graphite written on them They were lighter than wood or alloy, but much cheaper than European carbon racquets. As what I know as graphite would have snapped at the first stroke I knew it couldn't be the same thing, Graphite is a is a form of carbon, like coal and diamonds are, so I thought maybe Americans called carbon graphite (like calling their liquid petroleum fuel "gas", instead of petrol), but once the internet came out I found that Americans call carbon fibre carbon fiber, which put that theory to bed.
I did break one and it was black inside, but not fibrous or stranded as proper carbon fibre is, and solid, not hollow molded, it was solid and had granular structure like a Graupner carbon prop indicating that it was injection moulded CRP explaining the large price difference between it and carbon fibre raquets. My theory is now that Americans call injection moldable powdered or extremely short strand CRP graphite instead of CRP. Can anyone confirm or deny this.
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