Carbon fiber boxes are not often seen in everyday life, mostly used in military and aerospace fields. With the rise of electric vehicles, carbon fiber lithium battery boxes have become familiar. But carbon fiber boxes have more uses, such as in the water tanks of firefighting helicopters.
FT5000 Carbon Fiber Water Tank for Multi-Purpose Helicopter
Milestone Aviation Group and Helitak Firefighting Equipment Company of Queensland, Australia, are collaborating to install the FT5000 4,000-liter carbon fiber water tank on the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation's S - 92A multi-purpose helicopter. The first S-92A multi-purpose firefighting helicopter equipped with the FT5000 water tank will be on static display at the HAI Heli-Expo Global Rotorcraft Expo in Dallas, Texas, March 8-10.
The S-92A multi-purpose firefighting helicopter has unique features. Its FT5000 carbon fiber water tank weighs only 325 kg and can be installed or removed in minutes. The FT5000 system also features a hover pump that can fill the tank in 48 seconds.
Advantages of Carbon Fiber Boxes
1. Lightweight: Made of carbon fiber composite material with a density of about 1.6 g/cm³, much lighter than steel (7.8 g/cm³) and aluminum (2.7 g/cm³).
2. High Strength: Carbon fiber composites have 5-6 times the tensile strength and 4-5 times the Young's modulus of steel. This, combined with its light weight, gives carbon fiber boxes a significant advantage over metal boxes.
3. Good Fatigue Resistance: Carbon fiber composites excel in fatigue resistance. Tests show that their fatigue limit is 70% - 80% of tensile strength, with a service life of up to 20 years.
4. Good Corrosion Resistance: Carbon fiber composites can resist concentrated hydrochloric acid, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid. Corrosion resistance varies with different resins used in the composite.
5. Excellent Impact Resistance: Carbon fiber boxes are highly resistant to impact and collision, maintaining performance even after minor bumps.
Carbon fiber boxes inherit the comprehensive performance advantages of carbon fiber composites. They perform exceptionally well in the field and outperform metal boxes in many respects, except for their higher price. However, a complete replacement of metal boxes with carbon fiber boxes is not yet realistic.
