What Are Carbon Fiber Profiles? Properties and Why They’ll Shape the Future of Many Industries

Carbon fiber has earned a prominent place in the world of composite materials. Its unique combination of lightness and strength has revolutionized sectors as diverse as construction, transportation, music, and sports. In this article, you’ll discover what makes carbon fiber’s structure so special, what types of profiles exist, and how companies like Polymec are leading this transformation.


What Is Carbon Fiber and Why Is It in Such High Demand?

Carbon fiber is composed of extremely fine filaments made of carbon atoms. These fibers are grouped and combined with resins to form composite materials with remarkable mechanical properties. What makes it so appealing is its ability to withstand heavy loads without adding unnecessary weight to structures.


Key Properties of Carbon Fiber

  • High tensile strength: ideal for withstanding mechanical stress without breaking.
  • Low weight: up to five times lighter than steel.
  • Structural rigidity: maintains its shape even under pressure.
  • Resistance to corrosion and chemicals: perfect for harsh environments.
  • Good thermal behavior: tolerates high temperatures without deforming.

These properties make carbon fiber ideal for creating strong, durable, and lightweight parts that outperform metallic alternatives.


What Is a Carbon Fiber Profile?

A carbon fiber profile is a structural piece made using a process called pultrusion. In this process, fibers are impregnated with resin and shaped into rods, tubes, flat bars, or special profiles to create rigid, lightweight components with high mechanical strength.

At Polymec, these profiles are produced in accordance with European quality standards (UNE-EN 13706) and can be custom-designed to meet each client’s needs — from industrial structures to specialized technical components.


Types of Carbon Fiber Profiles Available

Polymec’s range of carbon fiber profiles includes:

  • Rods of various diameters
  • Round and square tubes
  • Flat bars
  • Half-round sections

Each profile is designed to offer maximum structural efficiency with minimal weight. They can also be produced in small or large batches, depending on demand.


Internal Structure of Carbon Fiber Profiles

The internal structure of carbon fiber determines its performance. The fibers are aligned longitudinally to maximize tensile, bending, and compression strength, making them ideal for load-bearing structures that require both lightness and strength.

At Polymec, all structural profiles are manufactured to meet E23 class of the EN 13706 European standard, which guarantees the highest levels of quality, rigidity, and surface finish.


Applications of Carbon Fiber Profiles

The versatility of carbon fiber allows its use across multiple sectors. Some key examples include:

1. Construction and Civil Engineering

Used to reinforce existing structures or create new ones that better withstand time and harsh environmental conditions.

2. Marine and Automotive Industries

Its lightness helps improve the performance of boats and vehicles, reducing energy consumption and increasing speed.

3. Carbon Fiber Pultrusion in Technical Solutions

In industrial contexts, carbon fiber pultrusion enables the production of lightweight yet extremely strong profiles for high-performance structural applications — in architecture, transport, machinery, and more.

4. Sports Industry

From golf clubs to bicycles and ski poles, many high-performance products benefit from the unique properties of carbon fiber.


Why Choose Polymec as Your Composite Profile Supplier

Polymec is a company with extensive experience in the composites sector. Based in Murcia, Spain, and with a clear international focus, it specializes in the manufacture of pultruded profiles reinforced with fiberglass or carbon fiber.

Advantages of Working with Polymec

  • Custom manufacturing: we produce exactly what each client needs.
  • European standards: compliant with EN 13706, class E23 (the most demanding).
  • Certified quality: ISO 9001:2008.
  • Agile and close approach: a family-run business offering direct and responsive service.

Polymec also provides innovative solutions, such as graphene-enhanced profiles, which further improve material performance.


Bring Your Project to Life with Our Carbon Fiber Profiles

Carbon fiber isn’t just the material of the future — it’s the material of today. If you’re looking for efficiency, strength, and lightness in your projects, carbon fiber profiles are the ideal solution. And if you want a flexible, quality-driven, internationally minded supplier, Polymec is your best choice.

Want to learn more? Visit our website or email us at info@polymec.com — we’ll be happy to help.

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Polymec, committed to the environment.

At Polymec, we are committed to protecting the environment. That’s why we carry out initiatives aimed at promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources, strengthening a sustainable and high-quality model within our facilities.

As part of this effort, we have renewed our lighting systems with LED technology and installed a new compressor, achieving an annual reduction of 30 tons of CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere.

This initiative has been co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Region of Murcia.

Total investment: €21,945.42
Total grant awarded: €9,047.20
ERDF contribution: €7,237.76

Objective: To advance in the assessment and improvement of energy efficiency in companies, particularly SMEs, and to achieve a cleaner and more sustainable economy.

Greenmur en

Among the technological challenges posed by the materials used in the construction sector, one of the most notable is the need for continuous innovation to achieve products with greater added value — featuring new designs and improved properties — while remaining aligned with a sustainable development model that reduces resource consumption and waste generation. In this regard, the circular economy represents a major opportunity from a business, social, and environmental standpoint.

In this context, Polymec, GLS 2014, and Yesos Rubio, in collaboration with the Technological Centre for Marble, Stone and Materials, have launched the project GREENMUR – Transition to a Greener Regional Industry through Circular Economy Processes in the Fiberglass, Marble, and Plaster Sector via Additive Manufacturing. The initiative incorporates Additive Manufacturing technology to process marble sludge and plaster waste, reinforcing them with fiberglass residues to produce new commercial prefabricated products.

The project will help reduce the consumption of mineral resources in the construction sector, minimize waste generation, and manufacture new products using Industry 4.0 technologies such as Additive Manufacturing, generating significant environmental, social, and economic benefits.

The project has been funded through the R&D Challenges Program of the Region of Murcia and has received financial support from the Development Institute of the Region of Murcia (INFO) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The RECOTRANS project achieves its first demonstrators thanks to a new microwave-based manufacturing process and lightweight multi-materials designed to produce more sustainable vehicles.

In Europe, transport accounts for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. One of the key strategies to combat this environmental impact is to reduce vehicle weight, which not only lowers fuel consumption but also improves performance, decreases the load on suspension and braking systems, and supports the development of electric vehicles, where range remains a major challenge.

RECOTRANS Project

POLYMEC is participating in the RECOTRANS project, whose goal is to develop technologies and design solutions that reduce vehicle weight without increasing costs. To achieve this, the project is developing multi-material thermoplastic components that both reduce part weight and allow for more complex designs. It also incorporates microwave curing in the manufacturing process to shorten production times and lower energy consumption, as well as metal–polymer hybrid welding to reduce raw material use and improve process standardization and automation. All of this is supported by an intelligent production line monitoring system.

The outcome of this innovative system will be the development of three demonstrators in the automotive, truck, and railway sectors: a car door, a truck cab rear suspension, and an interior panel for a train carriage. Early results from the project show that, after producing the first prototypes, there has been a significant reduction in both costs and energy consumption compared to conventional composites, as well as a viable path toward recycling and reprocessing recycled thermoplastic composites.

The RECOTRANS project, which began in October 2017 and will conclude in October 2021, is funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 program, and involves 13 partners from seven different countries. The developments achieved through this project will also be applicable to other industries.