New Oakley X-Metal Sunglasses Coming?

[Menendez1293]

Two words: Carbon Fiber.

Helluva lot cheaper, much lighter, can be made stronger than steel. Composite technology has come a LONG way in the last 10 years. Hockey equipment companies have been making carbon fiber sticks that are molded in any shape they want for years. Extremely flexible, very resilient, cheap Mexican factories, very low temperature molding allows you to make a LOT cheaper molds.

Don't know about all of that. Whe. I was watching how it's made carbon fiber it said it took a very large amount of heat to produce carbon fiber. It said you need to start with a special sheet of fibers and heat in a special containment with no oxygen till it was pure carbon fiber. And after that process it can be molded to what it needs to be. It said it was a very complicated processs

 

[Rustpot]

Don't know about all of that. Whe. I was watching how it's made carbon fiber it said it took a very large amount of heat to produce carbon fiber. It said you need to start with a special sheet of fibers and heat in a special containment with no oxygen till it was pure carbon fiber. And after that process it can be molded to what it needs to be. It said it was a very complicated processs

Titanium needs to be heated to over 3000 degrees F to melt. Carbon fiber sheets used in molding need to be about 250-500 degrees to be fully malleable.

Making carbon fiber and making things out of carbon fiber are two different things. Bike parts, hockey equipment, car components, baseball bats, etc are all made from layered sheets.

In terms of cost, the carbon fiber C-Six cost over 4 grand because it was a limited run with new molds, new methods, etc. The price had to be high to recoup all of the investment.

Besides, Oakley makes other things out of carbon fiber currently. A few pairs of gloves have carbon fiber knuckle inserts, and they use carbon fiber for a few watch faces. I realize this isn't the same scale, but I know from playing hockey you can get a full carbon fiber blade for a stick for $60, which is pretty complex geometry.

Anyway, it's all just a guess right now.

 

[dcl10]

Carbon fiber as a material is not that expensive, however real carbon must be hand laid in the mold, layer by layer, and that is what costs a lot of money. Bats, hockey stick, fishing rods, etc. are generally laid around a core, usually of graphite, so they may only have 2-3 actual layers of carbon. Also the core acts as a negative mold and reduces the amount of labor necessary. A lot of "carbon fiber" parts you see on cars are not real carbon fiber, but something called acrylic carbon. It's basically a hard resin that encases the carbon cloth, but the carbon is really just for show. It gives an authentic carbon look without the labor intensive process. A few do use real carbon, the LFA for example.

 

[Uluahunter]

Carbon fiber as a material is not that expensive, however real carbon must be hand laid in the mold, layer by layer, and that is what costs a lot of money. Bats, hockey stick, fishing rods, etc. are generally laid around a core, usually of graphite, so they may only have 2-3 actual layers of carbon. Also the core acts as a negative mold and reduces the amount of labor necessary. A lot of "carbon fiber" parts you see on cars are not real carbon fiber, but something called acrylic carbon. It's basically a hard resin that encases the carbon cloth, but the carbon is really just for show. It gives an authentic carbon look without the labor intensive process. A few do use real carbon, the LFA for example.

And there's one of the reasons why the LFA costs $300K :blink:.