This is the start of a three-part series all about carbon fiber. Part I looks at the basic properties on carbon fiber, Part II focuses on designing carbon wheels, and Part III on manufacturing with carbon.

Zipp is famous for designing and making deep section carbon-fiber bicycle wheels. But what exactly is carbon fiber? What are properties of carbon fiber? What is resin? Beyond bikes, what other industries use carbon fiber?

For starters, this is how Merriam-Webster defines carbon fiber:

Noun: a very strong lightweight synthetic fiber made especially by carbonizing acrylic fiber at high temperatures

also : a material made from such fibers embedded in a resinous matrix

Carbon fiber is the main material we work with at the Zipp factory in Indianapolis, so we wanted to spend some time talking about it. This episode is the first of a three-part series all about carbon fiber. In this opening episode, Zipp Design Engineer Manager Tess Denning discusses the basics of carbon fiber and what makes it both challenging to work with but ideal for high-performance components. Tess also talks about how Zipp’s engineering team literally went back to school, taking a graduate level course in advanced composites to provide a fresh perspective on their work at Zipp.