New! Carbon Fiber front wheel well lip downforce spoliers

The second product in Sierra Composites new motorsport parts aerodynamics line. Carbon fiber front wheel well lip downforce spoilers for race and tuned street cars. Used to fine tune a cars front aerodynamics to give more front downforce, they redirect airflow to the front wheels as well as create more surface area for airflow to push downforce on. Initially used to gain an advantage under certain racing rules regulating chassis width. However they do work and were successfully used on the Mercedes Benz CLK GTR as seen in photos below.

When rules allowed these to be molded into the race car front chassis they were, see the ALMS P2 Lola Mazda photo below:

Carbon fiber wheel well lip spoilers have been used in several racing series throughout the years, including German DTM, Austrailian touring cars, Grand Am prototype / GT, ALMS prototype GT, etc.

For full details of Sierra Composites new universal fit carbon fiber wheel well lip spoilers click over to our online store at www.sierracomposites.com

New! Carbon Fiber Dive Planes / Front Bumper Canards / Aerodynamics

Just released from Sierra Composites! Our new SC Aero GT3 carbon fiber front dive planes, also sometimes incorrectly called bumper canards. Sierra Composites has fabricated custom race dive planes for years, but this is the first time we have developed a race style dive plane that can also be used on a street car,  are universal fit and are not race car parts prices. A simple google search will give all kinds of results for “dive planes” or “bumper canards”, however these parts are either cheap plastic with maybe a carbon fiber thin insert for looks but sold funny enough as carbon fiber. Or aluminum parts covered with “carbon fiber”, or cheap polyester / fiberglass imitation parts. Most of these imitation dive planes also have many types of fasteners showing over the surfaces, have mounting areas that are just too small, and have no proper way of securing them to your car. Overall they are just not practical dive planes.

Details on the SC Aero GT3 carbon fiber dive planes can be found on our store website www.sierracomposites.com

Sierra Composites at Brumos Porsche 250 race weekend

Sierra Composites will be back to its racing roots this week. We will be working with a couple Grand Am prototype teams on some carbon fiber aero devices. This race track work is the final step for us before we release our “street versions” of one of these aerodynamic racing devices… Stay tuned…

Ducati carbon fiber modification

A customer of Sierra Composites used our carbon fiber angle and carbon fiber sheet for this under seat modification to his Ducati motorcycle.

NEW - R/C project small carbon fiber plate sheets

Our customers requested it, so we made it. Sierra Composites has just released its small R/C project carbon fiber plate. These 2.2mm double sided smooth / glossy plate sheets are very rigid and are well suited to small R/C structural parts such as shock towers and brackets. We know many in the R/C community fabricate thier own custom parts for cars, airplanes, boats and helicopters, Our new 5.5″ x 7.5″ carbon fiber plate sheets are perfect inexpensive way to make those parts.

Click to link directly to them at our online store.

Custom carbon fiber parts for high speed robotics

For years Sierra Composites has built custom carbon fiber components for end arm tools for use on  high speed robotic arms in manufacturing, such as plastic cups/containers and CD machines. These robotic machines normally move at high speeds and also have the need to accelerate then stop then accelerate again, sometimes changing directions as well. Because carbon fiber is the lightest  most durable type of contruction for a component, its perfect for robotic end arm tooling. And as a result of this construction it allows the robot to potentially move even faster, thus more units can be moved or made equally potentially more profit. Sierra Composites has fabricated several table top styles consisting of a honeycomb core with carbon fiber skins. Sierra Composites has also fabricated very light weight vacuum chamber panels utilizing a Rohacell foam core.

If you need some robotic machine parts please contact us.

Carbon fiber supplier for USA handmade knife makers

 Sierra Composites has been the leading supplier of carbon fiber sheets as well as silver texalium sheets and laminates to USA handmade knife makers for many years. We supply thin carbon fiber sheet material for use as handle scale inlays, and we supply thicker laminates for handle scales that can be profiled. The handle scales are particularly important since the carbon fiber layup has to be in the correct orientation in order to have the correct look once the handle is profiled down.  Since our silver sheets have the same great high gloss tough surface, our silver texalium sheet looks just as great as our carbon fiber sheet products do as you can see in the photos. We are very pleased to be suppling so many custom and production knife makers in the United States, and they can be sure that the products they purchase from Sierra Composites are also made in the USA.

If you are a custom handmade knife maker and need some custom carbon fiber sheet or texalium sheet for your knives, please contact us and we can supply you with the best products at the best prices. If you need off the shelf carbon fiber sheet for inlays you can purchase that directly from our website at www.sierracomposites.com

Click on the images for larger views

3M DINOC - vinyl sticker - fancy but still fake carbon fiber

One of the latest and greatest fake vinyl sticker sheet to come out is the new 3M Di-Noc from their “Architectural Finishes” series line. What is kind of strange about this material is that is actually has a printed in texture to appear to make it more real carbon fiber looking. Well in the real world of real carbon fiber the good finished side is smooth with no texture and either high glossy or matte finish. So what they are saying is that the 3M Di-Noc is as good as the “bad” textured side our Sierra Composites carbon fiber sheets, the side that is slightly textured that we apply the adhesive backing to and is not shown. One big issue they advertise is the fact that you can use a heat gun and stretch this stuff around corners, well that’s great but you can do that will all fake carbon fiber that is sticker vinyl, and the fact that you can do that measn its not a real carbon fiber composite. O.K so maybe the new fake sticker is much cheaper than real carbon fiber sheet, well it is, generally it sells for about $0.12 per sq/inch and our real carbon fiber sheet at .015″ thin with adhesive backing sells at $0.15 per sq/inch. Well not a big difference there. There is one area where we can not compete with 3M Di-Noc, we don’t offer real carbon fiber sheets in 600 colors and styles, maybe you could try using their “stucco” fake Italian plastic 3M Di-Noc for your next project. Real carbon fiber sheets can be purchased at www.sierracomposites.com

Fake Graphite Texalium Sheet (not carbon fiber)

Recently a B2B customer had sent us a sample of another fake carbon fiber type product. This time it is a fake Graphite Texalium sheet, often confused with carbon fiber sheet. Texalium is a high end raw fabric  fiberglass product made by Hexcel. Texalium is a high grade fiberglass that undergoes a process that applies a 200 Angstroms thin coating of aluminum, thus giving it the woven metal appearance. The aluminum base color can then be tinted by Hexcel to produce other colors such as the graphite steel color. It is used only as a top decorative layer on its own, or can be used in a laminate of carbon fiber with only the surface is the Texalium product. This fake sheet sample were sent does have what seems to be a Texalium or copy of that raw material as the base. Then it has a top layer of clear plastic vinyl that is .084″ thick on top and a .025″ thick layer of adhesive double sided tape on the bottom, making the entire thickness .109″ or approx 2.5mm. The top layer of plastic vinyl is very soft and can be easily permanently damaged by a simple fingernail mark. Most likely the plastic vinyl surface is also a very cheap grade that will yellow very quickly with any sunlight and be permanently damaged with most cleaning chemicals. Because there is actually nothing that makes this a composite, even at .109″ thickness it has zero structural qualities. If you see this product stay away from it at any price, as you will end up being very disappointed with it.

If you missed our article on fake carbon fiber sheet, click here to read it.

For real Hexcel Texalium sheets in silver and graphite colors visit our online store at www.sierracomposites.com

Asymmetric carbon fiber angle

Do you require carbon fiber angle that is longer on one side than the other? Sierra Composites is now fabricating asymmetric carbon fiber angle. The same great high quality carbon fiber angle we have fabricated for years but with two different side lengths. Currently the maximum side length you can purchase is 2 1/2″ long and the minimum is 1/2″ long, and the overal length of the angle is available in our standard lengths of 12″ / 24″ / 36″ / 48″. We are working on a simple product calcuator that will be available on our online store at www.sierracomposites.com but until then you can easily use our contact form for any inquires. Pricing for the asymetric angle is the same as a standard equal side length for the longest side.

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