Understanding Carbon Fiber: Exploring T300, T700, T800, and UD 3K, 12K

As a professional manufacturer of pickleball paddles, we often receive inquiries from our customers about terms like T300, T700, 3K, 12K, and UD. In order to provide our distributors with comprehensive knowledge, let’s delve into the meanings of these terms.

What is Carbon Fiber?

Carbon fiber (alternatively CF, graphite fiber or graphite fibre)  is a lightweight and incredibly strong material.It is primarily composed of carbon atoms, typically in the form of graphite crystals, which are aligned in a parallel arrangement.It is significantly lighter than steel while being about five times stronger.

T300, T700, T800 – Unveiling the Designations:

The letters “T” followed by numbers, such as T300, T700, T800. T stands for the tensile strength of the carbon fiber tow.T300 typically exhibits a tensile strength of around 3,000 MPa and a modulus of approximately 230 GPa. T700 carbon fiber is considered a higher-performance grade. It offers increased strength and stiffness compared to T300, with a tensile strength surpassing 4,500 MPa and a modulus of around 230 GPa. T700 carbon fiber is commonly utilized in applications where enhanced performance is desired, such as aerospace and sporting goods.T800 carbon fiber is an even higher-performance grade than T700. It is renowned for its exceptional strength and stiffness properties. T800 exhibits a tensile strength exceeding 5,500 MPa, making it significantly stronger than both T300 and T700 grades. Additionally, it has a modulus similar to T300 and T700, measuring around 230 GPa.

In terms of cost, the price of T700 is about 40% more expensive than T300; while T800 is 30%-40% more expensive than T700. This is mainly due to the T700 grade and The raw material cost and production and processing cost of T800 grade carbon fiber are different from T300, resulting in the final price of T700 and T800 is much more expensive than T300.

Understanding UD, 3K, 12K:

The number before the “K” represents the number of individual filaments contained in each bundle. For example, 3K signifies a bundle comprising approximately 3,000 filaments, while 12K contains around 12,000 filaments. Carbon fiber is measured by the width of the fabric. For example, a knit width of 1K is about 1 millimeter, while a 12K fabric is larger at about 12 millimeters, and so on.

UD is short for unidirectional. This means, that all the filaments lay parallel in one direction, no cross fibres or weaving. Things such as 1K, 3K or 12K are therefore of no importance at all. The only thing of relevance is the total number of fibres used, that’s the weight of the plies relative to the area.