It is difficult to make a list but almost every object we come into contact with every day will have been in contact with graphite or C/C at some stage in its production cycle, anything from needles to nuclear reactors.

Tokai Carbon and Schunk have a range of graphite and C/C grades to suit most applications. If you tell us the application and process parameters we will recommend our most suitable materials.

This is mainly the method of production and the influence on properties. Isotropic is pressed from all sides and is finer grained whereas extruded has larger grains and the properties differ with the grain direction.

By varying production parameters (components and processing) we can achieve a range of C/C material qualities with different physical and mechanical properties. The variety of materials is a result of type of fibre, fibre orientation, layer construction, infiltration media, compression cycles, final annealing temperature and finishing.

The most time consuming parts of the process are the heat treatment stages. The baking stage turns the soft mould block to a hard carbon block and the graphitising stage restructures the block to form graphite. Both stages together take about 4 months.

The C/C production process is based on multi-level production processes. In the first stage of production the raw materials are combined. The molding process (pressing or winding) is carried out according to the required geometry. The thermal processes include carbonisation at > 1000^oC and the final graphitisation at > 2000^oC. Depending on the desired properties an n-time resin impregnation is included abefore the final graphitisation. In total the C/C production process can take 3 up to 6 months.

Providing there is no oxygen present graphite and C/C can withstand more than 2500^oC

Depends on the type of graphite. Isotropic blocks can be 1500mm x 1500mm x 300mm at the largest and extruded or moulded blocks could be 600mm x 600mm x 2400mm long.