This publication, aimed at newcomers to composites as well as for people within the industry, is a strategic study which reviews the history of carbon fibre development since the 1960s to what has now become an essential raw material which is enabling the development of new high performance applications using lightweight carbon fibre reinforced composite components. Although there are many challenges still facing the carbon fibre industry, the global desire to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions, supported by leading Governments with subsidies and legislation, will globally drive more widespread use of carbon fibre based composite materials in the future.
Carbon fibres are already making significant inroads into next generation products and driving significant growth in the composites industry globally. The switch to using carbon fibre technologies is being led by number of major industrial markets, notably aerospace, wind energy and automotive, where high strength to weight ratio carbon fibre based composite materials are increasingly being used, replacing more traditional materials such as steel and aluminium, to reduce the overall weight of end use products.
Global carbon fibre demand in 2014 was an estimated 52,900 tons (metric), forecast to reach 110,500 tons in 2020. This comprehensive study covers the key players, the supply chain and the expected demand regionally by the main industrial market sector from 2013 to 2020, and gives a brief overview of new development trends for future carbon fibre based materials.
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