wrote:

First the 4130N shortage and now carbon fiber?
From what I have heard there is a real shortage of this world wide. Is
this true? If so can anyone shed some light on the how/why of this?
Is it related to the price of oil, or just more demand and lack of
manufacturing capacity? Is it just a shortage of the cloth, or the
basic raw material?
==========
Leon McAtee
Had planned to buy some more Graphlite this spring............

The way I understand it, you're right on all three points:

* Making the raw fibers takes a lot of energy, and right now energy
prices are high.

* There are several large aerospace programs getting started that
require a substantial portion of the available worldwide capacity; an
example would be the 787 program which is something like 60% composite.

Anyhow, the big players have placed or are placing their orders for
lots of high-value materials. The fiber manufactuers and weavers are
concentrating more on these very lucrative aerospace contracts than on
lower-value commercial orders. And who can blame them? The business of
business is definitely business.

However, I take sort of a long-term view of it; I believe that the
carbon supplier/consumer relationship will observe a Malthusian cycle
in which there is successively over- and undersupply. I think that it
will only be a year or two before we find that the materials
manufacturers have overshot the mark in keeping up with demand, and
prices and supply will return to something like normal. Also,
increasingly steady demand in the consumer and transport markets,
caused by greater demand for energy effeciency, will further bring
prices into line as materials firms add capacity to meet this
commercial demand.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24