Editing Carbon fibers (section)

==History==
[[File:Carbon fibers from silk cocoon.tif|thumb|Carbon fibers produced by [[pyrolysis]] of a silk cocoon. Electron micrograph—scale bar at bottom left shows 100 [[micrometre|μm]].]]

In 1860, [[Joseph Swan]] produced carbon fibers for the first time, for use in light bulbs.<ref>{{cite thesis |url=https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/6997/umi-umd-4508.pdf |title=Carbon Fiber Electronic Interconnects |first=Yuliang |last=Deng |date=2007 |access-date=2017-03-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404201211/https://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/handle/1903/6997/umi-umd-4508.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-04}}</ref> In 1879, [[Thomas Edison]] baked cotton threads or bamboo slivers at high temperatures carbonizing them into an all-carbon fiber filament used in one of the first incandescent light bulbs to be heated by electricity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/carbonfibers.html |title=High Performance Carbon Fibers |publisher=American Chemical Society |work=National Historic Chemical Landmarks |date=2003 |access-date=2014-04-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427100035/http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/carbonfibers.html |archive-date=2014-04-27}}</ref> In 1880, [[Lewis Howard Latimer|Lewis Latimer]] developed a reliable carbon wire filament for the incandescent light bulb, heated by electricity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/edis/forkids/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm |title=The Gifted Men Who Worked for Edison |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=2014-12-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207003814/http://www.nps.gov/edis/forkids/the-gifted-men-who-worked-for-edison.htm |archive-date=2015-02-07}}</ref>

In 1958, [[Roger Bacon (physicist)|Roger Bacon]] created high-performance carbon fibers at the [[Union Carbide]] Parma Technical Center located outside of [[Cleveland]], [[Ohio]].<ref>{{cite patent |inventor=Bacon, Roger |title=Filamentary graphite and method for producing the same |country=US |number=2957756 |gdate=1960-10-25 |fdate=1958-03-18}}</ref> Those fibers were manufactured by heating strands of [[rayon]] until they [[carbonization|carbonized]]. This process proved to be inefficient, as the resulting fibers contained only about 20% carbon. In the early 1960s, a process was developed by Dr. Akio Shindo at [[National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology|Agency of Industrial Science and Technology]] of Japan, using [[polyacrylonitrile]] (PAN) as a raw material. This had produced a carbon fiber that contained about 55% carbon. In 1960 Richard Millington of H.I. Thompson Fiberglas Co. developed a process (US Patent No. 3,294,489) for producing a high carbon content (99%) fiber using rayon as a precursor. These carbon fibers had sufficient strength (modulus of elasticity and tensile strength) to be used as a reinforcement for composites having high strength to weight properties and for high temperature resistant applications.

The high potential strength of carbon fiber was realized in 1963 in a process developed by W. Watt, L. N. Phillips, and W. Johnson at the [[Royal Aircraft Establishment]] at [[Farnborough, Hampshire]]. The process was patented by the UK [[Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Defence]], then licensed by the British [[National Research Development Corporation]] to three companies: [[Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce]], who were already making carbon fiber; Morganite; and [[Courtaulds]]. Within a few years, after successful use in 1968 of a ''Hyfil'' [[Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer|carbon-fiber]] fan assembly in the [[Rolls-Royce Conway]] jet engines of the [[Vickers VC10]],<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968%20-%202107.html?search=rolls-royce%20rb211%20hyfil |title=Stand Points |journal=Flight International |via=Flight Global Archive |page=481 |date=1968-09-26 |access-date=2014-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814123711/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1968/1968%20-%202107.html?search=rolls-royce%20rb211%20hyfil |archive-date=2014-08-14}}</ref> Rolls-Royce took advantage of the new material's properties to break into the American market with its [[Rolls-Royce RB211|RB-211]] aero-engine with carbon-fiber compressor blades. Unfortunately, the blades proved vulnerable to damage from [[Bird strike|bird impact]]. This problem and others caused Rolls-Royce such setbacks that the company was nationalized in 1971. The carbon-fiber production plant was sold off to form ''Bristol Composite Materials Engineering Ltd''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rolls-Royce - Graces Guide|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Rolls-Royce#cite_note-16|access-date=2020-09-22|website=www.gracesguide.co.uk}}</ref> (often referred to as Bristol Composites).

In the late 1960s, the Japanese took the lead in manufacturing PAN-based carbon fibers. A 1970 joint technology agreement allowed [[Union Carbide]] to manufacture Japan's [[Toray Industries]] product. Morganite decided that carbon-fiber production was peripheral to its core business, leaving Courtaulds as the only big UK manufacturer. Courtaulds's water-based inorganic process made the product susceptible to impurities that did not affect the organic process used by other carbon-fiber manufacturers, leading Courtaulds ceasing carbon-fiber production in 1991.

[[File:Ready to use carbon fiber sheet.jpg|thumb|Ready-to-use carbon fiber sheet in the factory before molding]]

During the 1960s, experimental work to find alternative raw materials led to the introduction of carbon fibers made from a petroleum pitch derived from oil processing. These fibers contained about 85% carbon and had excellent flexural strength. Also, during this period, the Japanese Government heavily supported carbon fiber development at home and several Japanese companies such as Toray, Nippon Carbon, Toho Rayon and [[Mitsubishi]] started their own development and production. Since the late 1970s, further types of carbon fiber yarn entered the global market, offering higher tensile strength and higher elastic modulus. For example, T400 from Toray with a [[tensile strength]] of 4,000 [[pascal (unit)|MPa]] and M40, a modulus of 400 GPa. Intermediate carbon fibers, such as IM 600 from Toho Rayon with up to 6,000 MPa were developed. Carbon fibers from Toray, Celanese and Akzo found their way to aerospace application from secondary to primary parts first in military and later in civil aircraft as in McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Airbus, and [[Irkut MC-21|United Aircraft Corporation]] planes. In 1988, Dr. [[Jacob Lahijani]] invented balanced ultra-high Young's modulus (greater than 100 Mpsi) and high tensile strength pitch carbon fiber (greater than 500 kpsi) used extensively in automotive and aerospace applications. In March 2006, the patent was assigned to the [[University of Tennessee]] Research Foundation.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=4915926 |title=Balanced ultra-high modulus and high tensile strength carbon fibers |invent1=Lahijani, Jacob |pubdate=1990-04-10}}<!-- See legal events tab for assignee --></ref>