Carbon Fiber Knowledge
The latest from the world of advanced composites and carbon fiber technology.
Every quarter, CompositesWorld's composites demand surveys track order momentum, capacity utilization, and inventory positions across the industry's main market segments. The July 2026 reading is the most instructive of the mid-cycle period: it captures a market that has cooled from its
The European Union's Critical Raw Materials Act, in force since 2024, was written with metals and battery materials in mind — lithium, cobalt, rare earths. But its logic reaches far beyond mining, and carbon fiber has become one of the clearest industrial illustrations of how the regula
For most of the past decade, carbon fiber moved along a handful of predictable routes. Japanese producers supplied high-modulus tow to aerospace; Chinese and Taiwanese mills filled the industrial and sporting-good segments; and a thin stream of precursor traveled from low-cost producers
European composite producers face a regulatory shift that has been years in the making but is arriving quickly. Regulation (EU) 2026/718 sets escalating recycling and recovery requirements for end-of-life composite products, and with it comes a blunt administrative fact: waste cannot be
In mid-2026 Pilatus Aircraft commissioned a new composite production center at its Stans headquarters in Switzerland — a CHF 100 million facility, roughly USD 123 million, named Schwarzhorn after the peak of the Bernese Oberland that overlooks the factory floor. The investment is one of
The United States Army has spent the past two years turning a phrase into a procurement doctrine. "Drone dominance" — the idea that the Army should field large numbers of low-cost uncrewed aircraft rather than a small number of expensive ones — has moved from congressional task-force re
Light-sport aircraft (LSA) and kit-built ultralights have become one of the fastest-growing segments of general aviation. The category appeals to private pilots, flying schools, and a new wave of low-altitude economy operators because the aircraft are simpler, cheaper, and more accessib
Modern warships carry radar, communications, and electronic-warfare antennas in plain view — an arrangement that has existed for a century. But those open masts create two problems for naval designers. The first is radar cross section: a lattice of steel, cables, and exposed antennas is
For more than two centuries, the instruments of the violin family were tied to tonewoods — spruce for the soundboard, maple for the back and ribs, and pernambuco for the bow. These woods produce magnificent sound, but they also create a chronic operational problem: every wooden instrume