TeXtreme®
TeXtreme® Spread Tow carbon fiber reinforcements are the ultimate choice for making ultra-light composites designs. With their revolutionary woven fabrics and thin plies, TeXtreme® carbon fiber composites optimize all the advantages and assets of carbon fiber technology, while considerably reducing labor cost and weight. As a group that is defined by our passion for precision and quality, ACP Composites is proud to utilize and distribute TeXtreme products.
WHAT IS TEXTREME®?
TeXtreme® Technology is a proprietary reinforcement technology, based on thin ply and spread tow principles, that delivers advanced composite reinforcements use to achieve ultra-light solutions that will last. The lightweight, thin plies attained in the TeXtreme® Spread Tow, give composites better performance by avoiding micro cracks and damage initiation occurring when carrying larger loads.
WHY IS TEXTREME® SPREAD TOW DIFFERENT THAN TRADITIONAL WOVEN FABRICS?
Traditionally, the tow used to weave composite fabrics is round or oblong in nature. This presents challenges when trying to achieve low aerial weights and has shown lower mechanical properties of a fabric because of inherent crimp or waviness that is being introduced in the fibers.
As an example, a typical 200 gsm 3K Plain Weave 50” wide fabric will have about 23,000 places where the weave overlaps, also called a crimp. Each crimp in the fabric has a very small area where excess resin will accumulate. By spreading the tow, the number of crimps is eliminated by over 90% which in turns eliminates the amount of area where excess resin can accumulate. In one yard of fabric you reduce over 21,000 of these super small resin pools yielding a part that is almost 20% lighter than a standard laminate.
WHAT IS THIN PLY?
Thin plies deliver the freedom to optimize the reinforcement design. The proprietary spread tow technology carefully spreads out the fiber into a thin, flat non-woven, unidirectional tape that is a light-weight, high performance tape used to reduce weight and laminate thickness. These tapes are ideal for use as a reinforcement, for wrapping applications and are the same tapes used to produce TeXtreme® Spread Tow woven fabrics. With the flexibility of Spread Tow Unidirectional Tape Thin plies (<0,05 mm/layer) suppress or delay crack initiation in loaded composite structures. Thereby allowing for manufacturing of lighter, stiffer and more durable composite products.
TeXtreme® Technology is flexible and tow-size independent which allows the development of optimized reinforcement solutions, tailor-made for specific needs of the application. Without sacrificing rigidness or strength it also can improve impact tolerance as well as your surface smoothness. TeXtreme® is available in a wide variety of configurations.
Symmetrical bi-directional construction
| Material | Ply sequence | No. of fiber layers to achieve symmetry |
|---|---|---|
| UD | [+45/-45/ -45/+45] | 4 |
| NCF | [NCF(+45/-45) / NCF(-45/+45)] | 4 |
| STF | [TeXtreme® (+45/-45)] | 2 |
Symmetrical quasi-isotropic construction
| Material | Ply sequence | No. if fiber layers to achieve symmetry |
|---|---|---|
| UD | [0/90/+45/-45/ -45/+45/90/0] | 8 |
| NCF | [NCF(0/90/+45-45) / NCF(-45/+45/90/0)] | 8 |
| STF | [TeXtreme®(0/90) / TeXtreme®(+45/-45) / TeXtreme®(0/90)] | 6 |
HOW TO BEST MAKE USE OF TEXTREME® SPREAD TOW
To get you started with TeXtreme®, please read this document consisting of advice and suggestions to assist you in using TeXtreme®.
FREQUENTLY ASKED TEXTREME® QUESTIONS
Q:What are different types of carbon fiber reinforcements?.
A:Carbon fiber composite reinforcements are available as unidirectional tapes, non-crimp & woven fabrics. We carry a variety of carbon fiber options to provide just the right amount of reinforcement needed to achieve the best performing and lightest part possible.
Q: How are spread tow reinforcements manufactured?
A: TeXtreme® woven spread tow fabric is created by arranging fibers in a woven structure into the straightest orientation as possible. Because of the straight carbon fibers in the TeXtreme® Spread Tow, these thin plies give composites better performance by avoiding micro cracks and damage initiation occurring when carrying larger loads.
Q: What are the benefits of spread tow reinforcements?
A: Spread tow reinforcements are a popular choice in manufacturing across many applications since its ultra-light structure offers high strength flexibility. Carbon fiber spread tow provides countless design possibilities that are easy to handle, cut, and place, both manually and automated.
Q: What applications can benefit from utilizing TeXtreme® Spread Tow reinforcements?
A: Spread tow reinforcements are utilized in a variety of industries that work with carbon fiber composites. Applications that require a lightweight, yet durable product like Aerospace, Defense, Industrial, and Marine. TeXtreme® Spread Tow materials are also utilized in diverse sports such as Ice Hockey or Surfing.
HOW TO BUY?
Our unique relationship with Oxeon® enables ACP Composites to distubte TeXtreme®‘s line of advanced Spread Tow Tapes and Woven Fabrics.
Shop our selection of competitively priced, high-quality TeXtreme® tapes and fabrics or ask us to source a custom style
ADDITIONAL TEXTREME®LINKS
- How to Best Use by Oxeon
- An introduction to spread tow reinforcements: Part 1 – Manufacture and properties by Reinforced Plastics
- The spread of spread tow by Composites World
When a stock material doesn’t meet your requirements, we can utilize our relationship with Oxeon® to acquire materials that best fit your needs.
Note: Data, images, graphs and infographics are supllied by and collected from Textreme®‘s marketing materials and website
