In the January issue of High-Performance Composites (HPC) 2011 a Case Study about the development of Fanatic's windsurfing board FreeWave TeXtreme is published. The Case Study discusses the choice of TeXtreme® Spread Tow Fabric and practical implementations and benefits of the carbon fabric.

1. APPLICATIONS
Spread-tow fabrics reduce waveboard weight
For windsurfing, Fanatic (Molln, Austria) entation possible, both in the plane and
recently introduced a new version of its out of the plane, the fiber properties can
FreeWave board, called FreeWave TeX- be exploited most efficiently to carry ten-
treme, made with trademarked TeXtreme sile and compressive loads, says Oxeon.
spread carbon tow fabric from Oxeon AB TeXtreme performs similarly to a cross-
(Boras, Sweden). ply construction of unidirectional tape,
In 2010, Fanatic experimented with new but, because it is a fabric, it is said to be
materials to improve waveboard mechani- considerably more drapable and less sus-
cal properties. Aware of TeXtreme’s use ceptible to delamination. It has a higher
in similar applications, the design team fiber volume fraction with fewer interlac-
started to analyze how to incorporate ing points than a traditional woven fabric
the material, including how to reduce and, therefore, correspondingly lower
weight without diminishing performance. crimp frequency and crimp angle. Due to
Fanatic product engineer Jürgen May says its construction with long fiber floats (20 finish than conventional carbon fabric.
a cooperative effort with Oxeon engineers to 50 mm), fiber waviness is minimized, The fabric for Fanatic was produced with
enabled Fanatic designers to “reach a very allowing the filaments to immediately an 80 gsm warp and a 40 gsm weft, giving
low material weight of only 120 g/m2, and carry tension or compression load with- the board extreme stiffness in one direc-
still achieve our technical requirements.” out first having to straighten. Textreme tion, adds May, which improves system
Use of an unbalanced fabric resolved can be produced at different tape areal stiffness and breakage force.
several technical problems. TeXtreme weights for optimized fabric construc- “The result is a very light and lively
combines tow spreading and tape weaving. tion, and because it uses tapes instead of Fanatic FreeWave TeXtreme 95, which
By flattening and arranging the fibers in yarns in the weaving process, May notes, weighs 10 percent less than our current
the woven structure in the straightest ori- the flatter fabric allows a better surface top level technology,” concludes May.
Oxeon AB
Norrby Långgata 45
SE-504 35 Borås
Sweden
Phone: +46 33 20 59 70
Fax: +46 33 20 59 79
E-mail: contact@oxeon.se
Web: www.oxeon.se
Reprinted from the January 2011 HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPOSITES Magazine
and Copyright © 2011 by Gardner Publications, Inc., 6915 Valley Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45244-3029.