carbon fiber square tube - light - strong - straight

Recently Sierra Composites launched its 3″ carbon fiber square tube and then its 2″ carbon fiber square tube. After months of prototyping our finished tubing is really a great product. While this large scale carbon fiber tubing is not cheap, it does have at least one critical application where a carbon fiber tube must be lightweight, strong and straight, and may as well have a great finish look to it. For metrology services, these are the requirements. When a carbon fiber structure such as an aircraft wing, or tail or fuselage must be accurately measured, it must also be measured using tooling that has the same expansion co-effecient as the part being measured. Obviously only carbon fiber can meet the requirement, and just as obvious metals such as aluminum can not as they easily expand and contract with heat and cold.  The tooling weight can also play a major factor on the jobsite when a metrology service must transport and setup the measuring tools, even our currently largest carbon fiber square tube at 3″ x 3″ and 84″ long weighs only 6lbs.