Applications

DragonPlate™ carbon fiber composites have amazing specifications that make it attractive to wide variety of customers. Among its many applications are listed below.

Industrial Automation and Robotics

Industrial automation and robotics is a field starting to realize the benefits of carbon fiber designs. For many applications, the ability to reduce weight and increase structural stiffness reflects directly in faster response time and reduced motor and actuator loads. This in turn results in improved productivity and longer maintenance cycles. In the business of automation, where machines often run as fast as possible 24/7, reduced inertial loads due to the replacement of heavy metal components with optimized carbon fiber structures can in turn reduce part fabrication time, dramatically increasing profitability. In such applications, the return on investment due to increased material costs associated with carbon fiber is often very short.

DragonPlate large diameter tubes, gussets, and carbon fiber sheets can easily be assembled into frameworks for a wide variety of robotic applications. For uses where loads and deflections are of major concern, DragonPlate can also customize the carbon fiber layup or dimensions to meet the customer specifications.

One recent example of DragonPlate carbon fiber materials is from the world of commercial robots. International Climbing Machines built a revolutionary wall-climbing robot, the chassis of which was almost entirely made from DragonPlate carbon fiber. This robot is used in the nuclear industry, airplane inspection, and many other applications where the environment is either extremely harsh to humans, or the ability to climb sideways and upside down would result in drastically reduced labor time (as in the case of inspecting an airplane fuselage or wing). By replacing the original metal structure with one made from DragonPlate, ICM was able to greatly increase the robot’s performance and payload carrying ability.

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Industrial Automation and Robotics

Carbon Fiber Idler Rollers

Dragonplate manufactures a wide variety of carbon fiber tubes useful for idler rollers, ranging from standard modulus tubes with stiffness comparable to aluminum up to ultra high modulus tubes more rigid than steel.

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Carbon Fiber Idler Rollers

UAVs and Drones

From the hobbyist to the professional, Dragonplate has the building materials you will need to create virtually any drone. Our off-the-shelf line of carbon fiber flat sheets, braided and roll-wrapped tubes, angles, and a wide array of pultruded materials provide all of the basics. Our patented connector system for pultruded tubes, as well as our modular connectors for braided and roll-wrapped tubes provide an ideal method for making frames, especially for multi-rotor helicopters. For assembly, an array of structural epoxies and fasteners are also available.

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UAVs and Drones

Carbon Fiber for Marine and Aircraft Interiors

Dragonplate offers a wide variety of off-the-shelf products and custom fabrication services to support the luxury yacht and aircraft interiors industry. Whether for an individual, corporation, or government client, carbon fiber composites can benefit your designs in two ways: weight reduction and high-tech distinctiveness. This is particularly true when designing the interior for aircraft, since every pound saved means improved efficiency and additional payload elsewhere in the vehicle. Weight and balance are also important for large yachts, where weight saved above the water line can help as well.

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Marine and Aircraft Interiors

Aerospace Tooling and Manufacturing Fixtures

The challenge with large tools, particularly aircraft production tools, is that they can be very large, and thus heavy and difficult to move. Dragonplate regularly helps customers reduce tool weights by 50% or more. Using FEA calculations, weight reductions up to 75% are possible in some cases when compared with older aluminum and steel tools and fixtures.

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Aerospace Tooling and Manufacturing Fixtures

Composite Radar Structures

Dragonplate has been building radar structures for military applications for over a decade. The advantage of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and Kevlar in such a unit is obvious when one considers the challenges moving equipment to remote locations. Lightweight carbon fiber composites can mean the difference between something that is carried and a system that must be moved by vehicle. And even vehicle and aircraft mounted radar systems benefit greatly from reduced weight.

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Carbon Fiber Composite Radar Structures

Medical Imaging, X-Ray and Gamma Ray Applications

Carbon fiber has rapidly become one of the primary materials utilized in medical imaging, x-ray and gamma ray applications. In particular, carbon fiber provides a radiolucent material with sufficient strength and stiffness to maintain critical dimensions under load, and will not break down over time, even after high doses of x-ray and gamma ray radiation.

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Medical Imaging, X-Ray and Gamma Ray Applications

Tactical Military and SWAT Gear

Dragonplate regularly collaborates with both military and SWAT police to develop new and innovative solutions to tactical problems. A key example includes our patented carbon fiber ladder system, which began with members of the Special Forces community requesting a piece of equipment that was lighter, more portable, and stronger than the current telescoping and fold-out ladders they had available. The collaboration between Dragonplate and soldiers included evaluation and feedback on early models, which allowed our team to create a product that was specifically designed to meet the mission requirements of the Marines and Army and Navy Special Forces with whom we worked with.

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Tactical Military and SWAT Gear

Carbon Fiber Luxury Items and Corporate Gifts

Dragonplate offers a wide variety of composite materials useful for inclusion into corporate and executive gifts, custom awards, trophies, medals, and other similar applications. Carbon fiber offers your project a high-tech, classy look and feel. Dragonplate works closely with companies in the custom awards and corporate gifts industry to help make these products stand out.

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Carbon Fiber Luxury Items and Corporate Gifts

Carbon Fiber for Trade Shows and Interior Design

Carbon fiber is increasingly used in the construction of trade show booths and within the more general scope of interior design, both for weight savings, as well as the high-tech associated with carbon composites. DragonPlate offers a wide range of off-the-shelf products to create high-end booths or interiors.

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Carbon Fiber for Trade Shows and Interior Design

Musical Instruments

Carbon fiber strips serve many applications in the making of musical instruments, where its material properties of low mass and high stiffness make it an ideal choice. Carbon fiber strips or our patent-pending D-Tube may be used in various configurations for neck reinforcement in wood necks. Short strips can be used to strengthen the head stock joint. Carbon fiber strips may be used in guitar bracing, where it can be used in combination with balsa or spruce as a stiffening laminate. Strips may be used in lattice support bracing of the top plate to allow greater thinning for increased response. Some makers have found other creative applications in using carbon fiber strips as longitudinal internal supports for reducing stress on top sounding plates. Due to its high strength in compression/tension and low mass, and its excellent bonding with epoxy and cyanoacrylate adhesives, carbon fiber is the doorway for new generation instrument making.

One of the most common uses of carbon fiber in the making and repairing of stringed instruments is neck reinforcement. To the right is an example of how carbon fiber can be used to give the neck more stability and reduce twisting. This neck cross section shows one possible way to install carbon fiber. Orientation of carbon fiber strips is determined by the cross-sectional dimensions of your neck.

Carbon Fiber Furniture

Carbon fiber is increasingly being used in the construction of furniture. Furniture makers use carbon fiber because of its light weight, durability and appearance. Carbon fiber can give a piece of furniture a "high-tech" or "high-end" look while reducing its overall weight.

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Carbon Fiber Furniture