Free Silver Texalium Sheet at Sierra Composites

From Dec 1st to Dec 31st, Sierra Composites is giving away a FREE 8″x5″ @ .015″ Silver Texalium sheet with 3M adhesive with every purchase. No catches or fine print besides limit one per order. Click on over to the Sierra Composites online store to take advantage of this FREE offer.

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

Carbon fiber sheet thickness calculator

Sierra Composites regularily gets questions regarding carbon fiber sheet laminate thickness in metric measurements. We do have unit conversion charts with other sheet data such as weight on every product item in our online store. However to make it even more simple to convert from inches to millimeters or even centimeters, we have built a javascript unit converter so you can easily covert whatever you need to. Once you know what thickness carbon fiber sheet laminate you need, click over to our online store at www.sierracomposites.com to purchase. [inline] [/inline]

Carbon Fiber Sheet Thickness Calculator

Convert carbon fiber sheet from inches / centimeters / millimeters.

1. Select a unit from the "From" dropdown list and one from the "To" dropdown list. 2. Enter a numeric value, and click "To" button.

From centimetersmillimetersinches To centimetersmillimetersinches   centimeters = 1 centimeters   Enter 1

Basalt fiber double sided sheet

Our new double sided Basalt fiber sheet is similar to our regular Basalt sheet in that it far surpasses fiberglass G-10 garolite sheets. Again G-10 garolite has a tensile strength of 40,000 psi whereas our Basalt fiber sheet has 70,000 psi. We are currently offering a limited number of these for our customers to try out. Remember Sierra Composites is the only North American manufacturer of basalt fiber sheets. Our double sided sheets have an excellent surface ready for paint. An 10.5″x7.5″ sheet at .047″ (1.2mm)  only weighs 4oz (106g). Price is $22.95. You can purchase these right here from our online store.

Property	Unit	Basalt	E-Glass	S-Glass
Tensile Strength	MPa	484	345	471
Elastic modulus	GPa	89	77	89
Elongation at Break	%	3.15	4.7	5.6

 

Basalt fiber sheets for R/C use

 Sierra Composites has just released the first size of our Basalt fiber sheets specifically designed for R/C use. Basalt fiber composites have mechanical properties close and in some cases greater than carbon fiber sheets, the greatest difference is that they are very inexpensive. Basalt fiber sheets are also a great improvement over the typical fiberglass G-10 sheets. Fiberglass G-10 sheets are designed for printed electronic circuit boards not R/C applications and therefore have all the low grade qualities of e-glass fiberglass, the lowest of all composite fibers. Compare a typical G-10 garolite tensile strength of 40,000 psi to a basalt 9 micron fiber tensile strength of 70,000 psi. If you plan on using G-10 garolite for a structural application you can see how much more strength you could have by using a basalt sheet instead. Remember Sierra Composites is the only North American manufacturer of basalt fiber sheets. Our sheets have an excellent surface ready for paint and a slight texture back for bonding. An 11″x8″ sheet at .022″ only weighs 1.9oz (53g) and the cost is only $11.95.  Check these sheets out on our e-store right here.