Georgia Tech has funding from DARPA (the research and development office for the US Department of Defense) in the area of carbon fibres and partnered with Harper to develop a customised process system for its research purposes.
The Harper carbon fibre system includes a configuration to accommodate fractional tow sizes in the range of less than 100 filaments. Commercial carbon fibre lines handle tow sizes of 3K, and rarely down to 1K. Harper’s expert design team was able to devise a proprietary solution to this challenge, enabling researchers to achieve their goals of processing material more quickly and utilising less expensive additives.
“Harper’s thermal processing systems will be used in our advanced materials research at Georgia Tech,” explains Dr Satish Kumar, Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering. “Solving tough problems with real world solutions is part of what we do at Tech. We are always interested in finding creative, technologically-focused partners to assist with our research."
Harper International, Lancaster, New York, USA, designs thermal processing systems for the production of advanced materials.