New carbon construction solutions from Refitech

With the introduction of the RefiFLEX connectors with a 'clicker', the company's round carbon tubes do not have to be glued but rather click together, allowing for constructions to be easily disassembled.

“It can be compared with the system used in tent poles,’ said Bas Nijpels, sales engineer at Refitech. ‘This makes it the perfect solution for temporary structures in which weight plays a major role. Possible uses are festivals, trade fairs and other short-term events, but also photographers or film crews, who often have to take a lot of material with them and could do with less weight to carry. Further it is an easy introduction for people who start with carbon constructions to work with the material, without having to start with glue immediately.”

Refitech's has also expanded its online offering of square tubes at with five new sizes: 28x14x800mm, 35x35x440mm, 50x50x890mm, 60x60x440mm and 120x90x800mm.

“In addition to the tubes we already had in our range, our clients frequently asked for additional sizes,” explained Nijpels. “On that basis we started to develop extra types, also in shorter lengths. This fits nicely with our objective of further growing our Carbon web shop with accessible and affordable carbon solutions for manufacturing and engineering.”

In addition to its standard tubes, Refitech can now also supply tubes with a customised wall thickness, for example if the standard thickness has insufficient rigidity or strength.

Refitech has also optimised the design of the RefiFLEX connectors. Thanks to the improved fit, frames can now be assembled more easily, quickly and precisely.

“We have also further improved the glue chamber, which also makes gluing the tubes easier,” said Nijpels. The connector now fits several types of carbon tubes, both prepreg and pull-winding types. With more complex and joined frames this saves a considerable amount of time, especially when using multiple connectors.”

Compared to metal constructions, weight savings of up to 75% can be achieved with the RefiFLEX round and square tubes. In addition, carbon composite has a high intrinsic rigidity and is not prone to permanent deformation or metal fatigue. The material is also chemically resistant and very dimensionally stable. Moreover metals and carbon have a significant difference in thermal conductivity; where for steel this is about 50 W/mK, for carbon composites this is only 0.6 W/mK.

www.carbonwebshop.com