Carbon fiber is everywhere. You may not notice it, but carbon fiber can be in your jewelry, your cell phone, and even in your luggage.
Carbon fiber has even changed the way industries create their products. It’s a popular, cost-efficient material that is strong, durable, and lightweight. As a result, many industries look to carbon fiber as the best material to chose when redesigning or creating new products.
Medical industries have adopted carbon fiber to create a broader range of devices and disability equipment. Keep reading to learn more about how the medical industry uses carbon fiber.
What Is Carbon Fiber?
Carbon fiber is sometimes known as graphite fiber and is made out of carbon atoms.
Manufacturers bond carbon atoms together to form a long chain. Carbon fiber comes in a wide range of materials, such as yarn and braids. The materials then turned into composite parts creating efficient and inclusive products.
Some advantages to using carbon fiber are its strength, low weight, high-temperature tolerance, and chemical resistance.
The most common raw material used to make carbon fiber is polyacrylonitrile (or PAN). However, materials such as plastic and wood byproduct are other options to make carbon fiber.
Several industries use carbon fiber in their high-performance products because of its many advantages. One such industry is the medical-industrial complex.
Implantable Medical Devices
One way the medical industry uses carbon fiber is to create implantable medical devices. Since carbon fibers are strong and lightweight, the material is desirable for a wide range of implants.
Prosthetics can now be made with carbon fiber. This change is because professionals can manipulate the material to the density of human bone. Compared to traditional materials used for prosthetics, carbon fiber is more flexible and has better wear resistance.
The flexibility of carbon fiber allows for custom-made medical implants. The medical industry can create carbon fiber medical devices for individual needs. Doing this will help the patients with their transition to using their medical devices.
Carbon Fiber Wheelchairs
Industrial medical services have also used carbon fiber when making wheelchairs. Conventional wheelchairs that are heavy and bulky are usually made out of steel. Using carbon fiber to make wheelchairs adds wonderful benefits to those who use them.
One benefit of a carbon fiber wheelchair is that it’s energy-efficient for the person using it. Heavy steel wheelchairs prohibited some wheelchair users the independence of pushing themselves. Since carbon fiber is lightweight, carbon fiber wheelchairs become helpful for easy pushing and smooth riding.
These wheelchairs’ high-quality construction increases their performance and durability while being used. Carbon fiber wheelchairs also make storage and transport easier because of their reduced weight.
Medical Industries Use of Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber has qualities that have helped the medical industry develop more inclusive devices and equipment than ever before. However, there are many ways medical industries use carbon fiber.
Learn more about other ways carbon fiber is used by visiting our website.
