Has anyone tried working with composite materials for a pack frame? The idea came to me to build my own small composite pack boat, but I do not want to spend a whole lot of money on Carbon fiber, that and carbon fiber is not the best in the outdoor world (very sensitive to stress fractures and UV). The idea came to me to try Tyvek and the filler material that is typically used with carbon fiber to try make a rigid pack frame (or possibly even a canoe if its rigid enough). Has anyone here experimented with this or any composites?
The only concern I might have in trying it is that carbon fiber tends to absorb the resin, where as I fear that tyvek will just layer it instead of absorbing it and becoming hard. Maybe kite tyvek since it is softer? I don't know, it has been a long time since I have played with Tyvek...
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Granite Gear Packs. They have been using composites for their backpack suspension for 12 years (started in 1996). The benefit is that they can engineer "flex zones" into the backpanel. I believe composites are the future of internal frame packs.
The material they use isn't carbon fiber (they tried it in their big 7000 cu.in. packs because of CF's stiffness), but they went away from it due to the expense and durability issues. Now they use what they call Tepex and Topoflex, a high-end (meaning best quality), continually reinforced thermoplastic. This material has proved to be very durable and holds it's shape far better than any metal. In fact you can bend the framesheet in half, leave it for several days, and it will return to the exact shape in an instant. It's amazing stuff! I have never seen a frame sheet break or crack.
The other thing I like about it is that it has a 3-D shape to it which allows for a better fit. Aluminum stays and plastic framesheets can't do this. By using the 3 flex zones (bottom is flexy to absorb the trail shock of each step, middle is semi-flexy to bend with the body but support the load, and the top is fully rigid to allow the load-lifter straps to help comform the backpanel to fit perfectly on anyone's back), Granite Gear has made their packs to perform far superior to an aluminum stay/plastic frame sheet pack. You simply can't (or nobody has) developed a way to put flex zones in aluminum. Actually that would be foolish since aluminum can stay permanently bent and will eventually fail if bent too much. It's pretty cool stuff <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />.
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