Carbon Fiber Axle

[aroracer72]

Thats the axle that a Team Nac's rider used on his pro racer. Its a cool idea...but carbon fiber is a bad material for an axle...shure its light....but it doesnt have any giving features to it....it just breaks all of a sudden when it gets pushed too far. Ide NEVER run a carbon fiber axle, but, id use a titanium one.

[TheJaspMan]

I guess I am a little unclearof how an axle made from any type of material has 'giving' features. They either break or they don't. Correct?

Or are you simply saying it doesn't bend before actually snapping in two?

I would be interested to see if it can even be broken in the first place.

[thomez]

Actually one reason Carbon Fiber makes good products is because it can bend and come back to form - the reason that Hyper wheels are so resistant to major catastrophies.

[pdavis]

i have run carbon fiber drive shafts on 1500hp,3000lb cars before without any problems, dont know if it would hold up to having a tire catch a tree

[jcv440]

Actually, the carbon fiber axle is an excellent choice. Withstands the abuse, and Cannondale was making their own carbonfiber, so it was cheaper than even steel axles.

[Bags]

All of our airboat propellers are now carbon fiber. They can make them hollow, lighter, stronger, and take a lot more abuse than aluminum propellers. I know that on my race boat, the propeller blade at the tip has over 30,000 lbs of outward force on it at 3,000 rpm, and the blade weighs 3 lbs and is all carbon fiber, hollow and 3 mil thick. I have had cooler lids, 3/8" bolts, small limbs, and other debris go through it and all it does is ding it up the slightest a bit at the actual impact spot, which is easliy repairable. I think that this product, although probably expensive, is a great idea. I personally know the fellow who produces these airboat propellers (and lives down the road from me) and will ask him in a few weeks about this. Maybe a new product or something.

[Bags]

Well if you can imagine, that a propeller blade is turning 3,000 rpm, is 72" long, and has a weight of 3 lbs total ( which some is in the hub an not spinning fast at all) and hits a bolt that weighs a few grams or so. That bolt can be thrown for several hundred yards away and we only know because it hit a guys windshield on the highway. I believe that there is a lot more force there, compared to an axle, pound for pound. The axle would be a lot shorter that the prop, a lot thicker (might not half to be solid though), and not have withstand the forces. A hard landing on an axle, say on the right rear tire, would probably have.....what.....??? 2,000 lbs force at the most? I dunno. These blades have 30,000 lbs of pull on them outwards. I dunno...maybe I'm rambling. I think that it would work.

[TheJaspMan]

QUOTE

Originally posted by ******
How about a 30lb rock? thats the only thing i'd be worried about:eek:  a small limb or a 3/8 bolt at a split sec hit isn't goiing to be like hitting one of the hatfield rocks!! not to be a spaz or anything but i'd rather have something a little stronger on the hardness scale.

I would be more concernd about the splines for the hub than anything else. That seems like it would be the weakest part due to the small size of the structures.

Carbon fiber itself is stronger than any steel. The fibers are 20 times stronger than steel, the the resin is chemically bonded. If it wasn't stronger than aluminum I can't imagine them lining the shuttles and other aerospace items with it. Not to mention all the aeronautical and nautical uses they are finding for it.

I would love to test one out and see how it holds up.

[aroracer72]

yeah...i was refferring to old carbon fiber that I used for my BMX racing frame a few years back...since they have improved the ways of use..and how they form it etc...i was wrong....sorry.
CHAD

[claas900]

..Sounds like we need to give Cannon a call and get the ball rolling on this again?.. ...j/p...O the things that could have been...