Industry Insider – Seibon Carbon

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Seibon's dry carbon GT-R doors have all the cool features of the wet carbon doors and are 1.3 lbs lighter at 9.5 lbs each versus 10.3 lbs.  The weight difference also speaks highly of the quality and control of Seibon's wet lay up process! Look at the multiple pieces of carbon each requiring a separate mold like the window track.  Such detail sets Seibon's door apart from the rest of the market.  If a high gloss finish is desired you can have dry carbon clear coated, wet sanded and buffed.
Once the mold has been under a hard vacuum for a prescribed amount of time, it is placed in a large temperature controlled oven and baked while still under vacuum.  This cures the epoxy.  Although an autoclave supplements the vacuum with several hundred lbs of pressure, this is really only important for thick structural parts with many plys like a race car tub.  For  thin section parts like body panels, it is not such an advantage.  Even then this is still much more labor intensive and slower than wet layups.  Look at the detail of the doors.  All stock interior panels, window regulators, speakers, locks, handles and seals bolt right up.
The door is highly finished.  Note the holes for the seals and the water drains.  A lot of lower priced “dry” carbon is simply wet carbon with a flattening agent in the gel coat to make the part dull.  Seibon's dry carbon is the real deal.
Look closely in areas that you will never see.  Look at the lack of weave distortion and the nice edge finish.  Once the dry carbon part is cured, it is removed from the bag and the peel ply and batting are removed and discarded.  You now have a light and strong part with few internal voids and excellent wet out.  All properties of good composite parts!

In the past Seibon was one of the companies that we would not have wanted to deal with, a company making lower priced copies of other people's stuff.  However Seibon, like a few other Asian companies has evolved, they are enthusiast run and have reinvested in themselves and the US market.  Their production is in Asia but their prototyping and design is here in the USA for our market.

Seibon's quality has evolved as well from typical low priced stuff to top class in their latest offerings.  For example, the fit of the Seibon stuff on our project FR-S is amazing.  It is better than stock with smaller gaps!  Seibon's quality has improved so much that they are now producing parts for other high end aero kit companies and are even making some composite parts for OEM manufacturers!

Seibon has come a long way,  from a company making knock offs, growing to a company that is getting knocked off.  That is a strong compliment to them even if it hurts them.

 

 

Sources

Seibon Carbon

 

 

 

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