Carbon Fiber Technology Facility improves low-cost carbon fiber manufacturing through continuous monitoring, innovation
While it’s a hub of activity during the day, the 42,000-square-foot Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, which sits just west of ORNL’s main campus, is often dark and quiet at night.
But when it’s producing a run of carbon fiber material, it’s alive around the clock.
The state-of-the-art facility was built to help scientists discover how better to produce carbon fiber, an incredibly strong but very lightweight material used in the automotive, energy, aerospace, construction and sports equipment industries – to name just a few.
These 24-hour runs typically last about two weeks, depending on the material and what it’s being used for, said carbon fiber line technician Gary Vance. The first 24 hours is as important to R&D as to the manufacturing itself.
“It takes 24 hours to get enough material to send to our lab,” Vance said. “Those test results tell us what we need to adjust in our process to make the best product.”
The facility, established in 2013, is a test site for identifying low-cost materials with high potential to make innovative carbon fiber products. On its 390-foot processing line, it runs up to 25 tons a year of carbon fiber precursors, including textile, lignin, polymer and hydrocarbon. Every run is an opportunity for continuous improvement, making small tweaks to see what makes a difference.
“We want to make it as low-cost as we possibly can while still delivering a good-quality product, for whoever needs it,” Vance said.
The facility contains a spectrum of equipment to be used toward that effort, including multiple heat and stretching treatments; a sizing bath to saturate the fiber; machines that spin material into thin ribbons with specific atomic structures; a machine that uses polymers to form carbon fibers into solid structures; and various technology to cut, shape, wind and package the fiber products.
The process requires constant monitoring, both visual and hands-on, Vance said, “just to assure we don’t have any problems during our run.” That’s one reason for 24-hour staffing. Most employees shift to other types of work when there’s not a run.
It’s also a messy process; staff do maintenance and cleanup between runs.“When you switch from one material to another, you have to thoroughly clean,” Vance said. “You don’t want to contaminate the line.”
Vance was recruited three years ago from another carbon fiber facility in an adjacent county. Though the nights during a run can get long, he believes in the value of the work.
“When you see the products carbon fiber goes in, all the things it makes – this is really a great material,” Vance said. “It’s light, it’s strong, and it can help in a lot of varied places. I’ve seen over the years how the uses keep piling up. This takes the place of a lot of other materials. It’s strong, durable, and it lasts. You don’t have to replace it as often.”
Carbon fiber line technician Dexter Nelson said the work has a lot of potential and presents good job opportunities.
“My expertise has always been in process improvement, and the fact that the research that we do requires continuous improvement is what I like the most,” Nelson said. “I like problem-solving.”
He appreciates the camaraderie that develops between the close-knit team on runs − and the mentality of working, even while others sleep, toward a common goal.
“It’s getting to see that you can make a change in something that has a lot of benefit, and here at the lab, specifically, the benefit goes way beyond what we can even see,” Nelson said. “I enjoy that. It’s exciting.”
The Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, a DOE Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation user facility at ORNL, is the nation's only facility focused on carbon fiber research and innovation. The CFTF is funded by CMEI's Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the DOE’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is committed to addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science. - Kristi L. Bumpus