What is Carbon Fiber?

When it comes to choosing the right Aviator Wallet for you, you have tons of options to individualize it and adapt it to your preferences. The very first step of that process is choosing the right material for your wallet - and therefore, one of the most popular is carbon fiber. Not only one of the strongest materials, but also light as a feather it is only the peak of wallet perfection. Combining all the features and benefits of other materials and coming in at an affordable price. 

But unlike our other materials like aluminum, titanium or steel, carbon fiber is something not every minimalist is familiar with. Where does it come from? What are the advantages of this unique material? We give you an inside look what carbon fiber is about!

How is Carbon Fiber made?

Without going to deeply into science, all you really need to know is that the biggest part of carbon fibers are made from an organic polymer called polyacrylonitrile. This raw material is stretched into long and winding strands. It can even be thinner than human hairs. After that the so called carbonization happens. The stretched strands, the fibers, are heated to extremly high temperatures without exposing them to oxygen. This prevents the fibers from burning. 

After that the cooled down carbon fibers getting twisted together into tight chains. Just like your grandmother knitting a blancket or some socks. With this development process in mind it is easy to understand how the typical structure of carbon fiber material arises. 

The History of Carbon Fiber

Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was the first person ever that was recorded to use carbon fiber for an early incandescent light bulb back in 1860. A few years later in 1879, Thomas Edison invented a cellulose, first electrically, heated light bulb based on carbon fiber. He was able to create a carbon fiber filament being incredible heat resistant, making this special material perfect for conducting electricity. 

In a more modern era of carbon fiber (starting back in 1950) engineers of the aviaton and rocket industry were searching a material suitable for jet engines. From then on new, higher-tensile carbon fibers being invented and used. These high-performance fibers were later utilized for experiments over in Japan. Car manufacturer Rolls Royce created an even more advanced version that was known under the name Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer and was used for their workers lab coats. This newly emerging material weighed considerably less than traditional production metals while offering much better tensile strenght and heat resistance. 

Despite the significant progress over the past years and decades, carbon fibers remain a faily expensive material for manufacturers and production. Still though it costs only a fraction of what it once cost in the early years of the material. But this not only explains why carbon fiber parts have become so common in today's era. The components are typically reserved for vehicles on the more elite end of a wide reaching spectrum in possible areas of application.

The Advantages of Carbon Fiber

Probably the list of advantages carbon fiber offers would go beyond the scope. But the key thing making carbon fibers special is the combination of being lightweight while also extremly strong. But how strong exactly? Carbon Fiber is said to be five times stronger than steel. That fact alone would account for its increasing popularity. 

Carbon Fiber also has high-tensile strength, tolerates extreme temperatures and is pretty stiff. It is used in fields like aviation and aerospace industry, racecar and bicycle manufacturing and also good to use in the slim wallet and everyday carry scene. It can whitestand a comeback into the earth's atmosphere, so think about it while carrying our Aviator Wallet in your front pocket. You do not only carry a modern and minimalist slim wallet, but also a material with history that got developed and improved over time and is used in high-tech fields.