Why Carbon?

Carbon fiber is a material consisting of fibers of about 5 - 10 μm in diameter – mainly carbon atoms. Several thousand carbon fibers are bundled together to form a string that can be used on it’s own or woven into a cloth.

The properties of carbon fiber - like high degree of stiffness, high tensile strength and elasticity, low weight, high chemical resistance, high degree of temperature resilience and tolerance and low thermic expansion, are all properties that has made carbon fiber a popular material in aerospace science, the military, motorsports, industrial production and several competitive sports.

When carbon fiber is combined with other materials a composite is created. When combined with plastic materials carbon fiber reinforced plastic is created. These types of materials have a very high strength to weight relationship.

Carbon 600xXXX

		Mass	Tensile strength	Elasticity module
	Type	kg/m³	Mpa	Gpa
Steel	Low-Grade	7750	150-1500	210
Steel	High-Grade	7600-8000	200-2000	190-205
Aluminium	Alloy	2700-2800	34-500	~70
Glass fiber	E-Glass	2540	2400	73
Carbon fiber	T700	1770	5300	235

Synergy effect by achieving weight reductions

The high strength contra weight ratio of carbon fiber makes it possible to reduce the weight significantly while maintaining the desired strength in a given construction. When carbon fiber is used the weight is reduced significantly which leads to a large reduction in the level of fuel consumption, which again leads to a reduction in the CO²-emission.

Example:
By choosing carbon fiber -> Hull weight is reduced -> reduction in operational power -> requires a smaller engine -> lower overall weight -> less fuel consumption -> less CO²-emission. This also opens the possibility of using the advantage of the lower weight by allowing more passengers or larger cargo and thereby heightening the effectiveness of the vessel.