What is This Flexible Carbon Fiber Sailcloth Material?
Most things people make out of carbon fiber are hard as a finished product. Like fiberglass, the typical carbon fiber comes in cloth sheets that have to be laid up in a mold with resin and left to set. This limits applications to hard objects.
So how do we make flexible carbon fiber bags and wallets you ask?
Enter the high performance sailing world and the desire to have ever lighter and stronger sails. White sails are for cruisers, the racers want the ultimate in low stretch, and strength without giving up weight. So along came the invention and introduction of sailcloth laminates that utilize high tech fibers (the first well known one being Kevlar) encased in flexible resin. Fast forward to today, and as with everything, technology has gotten better, high tech fibers have progressed, and now they’ve incorporated carbon fiber into their materials.
The specific cloth we use is Dimension Polyant’s G.P.L. carbon fiber racing laminates. It is the first laminated sailcloth line to capture the strength of high performance carbon. G.P.L. laminates utilize high strength carbon warp sheet fiber, super rugged Technora base and Technora X-PLY to create racing fabrics with incredible resistance to flex, elongation and degradation from U.V.
