Is Carbon Fiber Lighter Than Aluminum?

CARBON FIBER DENSITY

Carbon fiber has a density that is nearly half of that of aluminum. With a composition of 30% epoxy resin and 70% fiber, carbon fiber has a density of 1.55 g/cm3, whereas aluminum is 2.7 g/cm3.

CARBON FIBER WEIGHT

As a result, replacing aluminum with carbon fiber in a component of the exact dimensions reduces its weight by approximately 50%.

To put these two materials on a scale, imagine a 1 m2 6 mm thick sheet. An aluminum sheet weighs 16.2 kg, while carbon fiber makes it much lighter at 9.3 kg.

STRENGTH AT THE SAME WEIGHT
The strength of a material is characterized by the amount of load it can sustain before it bends or fails. The more significant the resilience, the greater the burden it can hold up.

Weight for weight, a carbon fiber part offers 2 to 5 times more strength, depending on the fiber used, than an aluminum part of the same weight.

To put it in comparison, a 1 m2 carbon fiber sheet that weighs 10 kg will be 7 mm thick, while an aluminum sheet of the same weight will be only 4 mm thick.

Carbon fiber has higher strength at lower density, so a product of the same weight may be thicker, resulting in increased strength from increased thickness alone. For example, increasing the thickness by two times increases the solidity by up to 8 times.