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Geoff Germon is a carbon fiber evangelist. He wants designers of everyday consumer products to add the high-performance material to their repertoire \u2013 but he also is acutely aware of the challenges. They include a circular set of factors — a lack of knowledge that hinders adoption, which in turn keeps volumes low and costs high. But he remains optimistic and continues to fight to change the status quo.<\/p>\n
Based in Australia, Germon knows the score well. He founded Talon Technology Pty. Ltd. in 1986 to exploit the opportunities in advanced composite materials, and has been a critical observer of that industry for the last 30 years. He also serves as an adjunct professor in design at the University of Canberra, with the aim of helping the university develop expertise in the design and fabrication of carbon fiber (CF) consumer products.<\/p>\n
Specializing in the design and manufacture of such products, Germon was responsible for creating the world\u2019s first carbon fiber field-hockey stick, volume-produced carbon \u00e7af\u00e9 chair, and a raft of other specialized products. With extensive experience working all over Asia, he currently is setting up a joint research and development operation for one of the largest consumers of carbon fiber in China.<\/p>\n
Germon brought his cause recently to Providence, R.I., where he spoke at the inaugural Design in Plastics conference (www.4spe.org\/designinplastics)<\/a>, organized by the Society of Plastics Engineers at the Rhode Island School of Design.<\/p>\n \u201cOur problem,\u201d Germon told attendees, \u201cis that we have composite engineers who are standing on the other side of the room, waiting for the product to come to them. And they believe that if they have some relatively innovative process or idea, that the market will just flow to them automatically. What they don\u2019t realize is that most consumer products \u2013 different from engineering products, I\u2019m not talking military, defense or aerospace \u2013 start life being gated by industrial design.<\/p>\n \u201cSo industrial designers are the first people to look at the materials options and most of them like the concept of carbon fiber. But if you\u2019re a professional industrial designer, you have to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n So while designers initially tend to like the possibilities offered by carbon fiber, he said they often end up having second thoughts. They wonder if they can really deliver, since they are not all that familiar with the material or the process, and often don\u2019t really know anyone they can turn for help, or who could manufacture it in volume. So they end up suggesting sticking with better-known, alternative materials such as aluminum instead.<\/p>\n Designed and produced by SplinterWorks<\/a> in the UK, this Vessel tub resembles a hammock, is suspended from the walls and does not touch the floor. The Vessel is made from carbon fiber due to its inherent strength and ability to be formed into complex curves. Beneath the layers of CF lies a foam core, which insulates the tub and allows it to stay hot for longer than normal.<\/p>\n Dubbed simply the Talon Chair, this carbon fiber stacking chair went into production in 1996 \u2013 \u201cyears ahead of its time,\u201d according to Germon.<\/p>\n In the 1980s, Germon\u2019s company made the world\u2019s first carbon fiber field hockey sticks and sold them under the Talon brand. At one point they were the third largest brand in the world. He sold the business more than 15 years ago but just recently developed the sticks seen in this picture. Called TH9, they are carbon sticks that have interchangeable head weights.<\/p>\n Talon Technology sells this particular model of a Dragon boat paddle under the Merlin brand. It developed the product in Australia and makes it in China.<\/p>\n This is a standard butt hinge made with carbon fiber wings and a urethane-impregnated DuPont Kevlar hinge element. Its principle benefits are weight, corrosion resistance and the ability to get the hinge in a super thin profile that measures just 1.6mm when closed. It also can be glued in place instead of using screws.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so,\u201d Germon lamented, \u201cwe have a whole industry that\u2019s been waiting for consumer products now for 20 years \u2013 and it\u2019s never come.\u201d<\/p>\n He took the opportunity in Providence to provide a brief primer, or Carbon Fiber 101, as he called it. Carbon fiber is produced by converting a carbon-containing polymer precursor fiber to pure carbon fiber through a carefully controlled series of heating and stretching steps. In current commercial practice, the precursor \u2013 polyacrylonitrile, or PAN \u2013 is chemically modified and optimized to maximize the mechanical properties of the end product. The high cost of specialty precursor materials and the energy- and capital-intensive nature of the conversion process are the principal contributors to the high cost of the end product.<\/p>\n Different materials can be used for the matrix, though epoxy is most common, and certain thermoplastics are also emerging as options.<\/p>\n One can use a wet laminate, or resin transfer molding (RTM) process, but the preferred process often involves using a prepreg. Where desired in the mold, one lays down the black, sticky prepreg tape (which already includes the resin), and then cook it. The prepreg melts, and the remaining material gets very hard. It\u2019s really that simple, he suggests.<\/p>\n \u201cThe issue with designing with this stuff,\u201d he acknowledged, \u201cis that you have so many variations on a theme, that it\u2019s a head-spinner to actually get something that works.\u201d<\/p>\n But he and others have proven that many things can work. Germon showed various examples during his talk, including the wall-mounted, vessel bathtub designed by Splinterworks of (ironically) Bath, England. \u201cI like the drapability, the sort of frozen fabric\u201d effect of the material, he noted.<\/p>\n His firm created a stacking chair that went into production 20 years ago. \u201cIt was years ahead of its time,\u201d he suggests. There also are carbon\/aluminum hybrids, and a carbon Kevlar (aramid fiber) hinge unit, which creates a \u201csoft curve\u201d and can rotate 360 degrees. Talon Technology also has produced various sporting goods.<\/p>\n He offered some simple rules for carbon design:<\/p>\n The cost of carbon fiber continues to hinder its acceptance for wider usage. Why do 300 grams of PAN cost $25, he asked out loud. \u201cBecause only four companies make the precursor,\u201d he explained \u2013 and those firms are all catering to the existing demand for CF among aerospace and defence customers. The limited vendor base works to ensure that raw material costs remain high, Germon suggested. High cost has been the single largest roadblock to widespread use of carbon fiber as a strong, stiff reinforcement for advanced composites.<\/p>\n But, fortunately, he noted, there are forces afoot trying to change that, referring specifically to Tennessee\u2019s Knoxville-area Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.<\/p>\n Acrylic fiber of similar chemistry is produced on a commodity basis for clothing and carpets \u2013 a high-volume product that costs roughly half as much as the specialty PAN used in the carbon fiber industry. ORNL researchers believed textile-grade PAN was a pathway to lower-cost carbon fiber, but laboratory-scale experiments couldn\u2019t fully explore its potential at a production scale. That led Oak Ridge to open a semi-production-scale conversion plant in March 2013. This 42,000-square-foot Carbon Fiber Technology Facility<\/a> uses a 390-foot-long processing line, and builds on more than a decade of research in the area.<\/p>\n Researchers there have demonstrated a production method they estimate will reduce the cost of carbon fiber by 50 percent or more, and the energy used in its production by more than 60 percent. And this past spring, ORNL made the new method available for licensing. From mid-March to mid-May, the group accepted applications from firms seeking to license the technology, and said it would likely grant from three to five such licenses.<\/p>\n Mike Paulus, ORNL\u2019s director of technology transfer, said in a July 11 telephone interview that negotiations with several of the selected candidates are \u201cwell under way.\u201d He expects those discussions may be completed by the end of September, and It then will be at the discretion of each licensee whether or not they go public with word of their involvement.<\/p>\n ORNL said its new, lower-cost method promises to accelerate adoption of carbon fiber composites in high-volume industrial applications, including in automobiles, wind turbines, compressed gas storage and building infrastructure. Paulus added that \u201cthere are a number of other places where this could go \u2013 anywhere you need strong, lightweight, relatively inexpensive material.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained that the license application process was open to firms around the world, but the caveat was that the carbon fiber to be sold in the United States has to be manufactured in the U.S., and \u201cwe built in a preference for companies that would manufacture in the United States for export. Our goal here is to stimulate growth of low-cost carbon fiber industry in the United States, and keep those jobs here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWelcome to the game changer,\u201d Germon said. \u201cThat breaks the monopoly of the current suppliers.\u201d But now it\u2019s more important than ever that designers learn how create products using carbon fiber. Otherwise, the licensees are \u201cgoing to go broke unless someone comes along with the applications to suck up this new production.\u201d<\/p>\n The future of low-cost carbon depends on expanded applications, which in turn depend on industrial designers understanding what the material can do. The best place for designers to become exposed to carbon is at university, he suggests, and yet he said he is not aware of a single design school that effectively teaches carbon fiber product design.<\/p>\n In a modest way, Germon is trying to do his part. \u201cAt the University of Canberra, one of the things I\u2019ve done there is that we start the kids off in industrial design doing carbon fiber parts.\u201d<\/p>\n He wants all designers to make an effort to learn more about carbon fiber as material and as a process. The payoff, he suggests, can be innovative, creative product designs that offer eye-popping aesthetics and incredibly high performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/media\/2016\/07\/Vessel-Tub-by-Splinterworks-1024x655.jpg\")
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