I’m ripping apart a set of BMW seats for my next DIY and found this to be quite interesting.
For the heating pad inside the seat…the actual heating element material (what conducts the electricity/resistance) is actual strands of carbon fiber. After a bit of research this isn’t new technology or rare…but i didn’t know that.
that’s all…some of you may have learned a useless fact today. carry on.
sweet :tup:
but, why?
its probably not as conductive…and it doesn’t save all that much weight.
damn thats cool :tup:
probably so that it slowly warms up and stays at a comfy temp instead of turning yer ass into a pop tart! just my guess.
cool…
josh, your soo sexy when you post up your diy’ves
Hmmmm, your taking your seats apart, fill us in on the DIY plan
“Carbon fiber offers the best in heat distribution and overall temperature consistency” … plus its flexible and strong.
same thing.
awesome! :tup:
didn’t know that 
Pretty pimp. :tup:
also, the idea in heating situations is NOT to be conductive 
that is pretty cool… there was a discussion just last week on one of the composite forums about the conductivity of carbon.
Is carbon fiber also used in electric blankets?
Sweet! Good find, now I can brag that my car too has Carbon Fiber yO! :bloated:
X… :lol:
well dont go that far.I doubt every compnay uses CF for their heating elements.
Everyone go tear apart your heated seats so we can see what theyre made of!
Yes, Carbon is a good conducter, i just didn’t think it would be used in an application like this. For the carbon fiber weave/fabrication process, the epoxy or bonding process can increase or decrease the conductivity depending on its dielectric properties
Carbon/Graphite- when it burns…it can only be reduced to …well carbon, so it doesn’t break down very easily at all.
now to go off on a bit of a tangent, yet increase the “interesting” factor to this thread.
Machine Tooling is very commonly made of nearly pure 100% Graphite for burn drilling holes and other burn maching. EDM… “Electrical Discharge Machining”. This is the process I used for maching dies and ‘drilling’ tiny holes (1/32" through 6" of tool steel) at American Axle. The electrical charge goes through the graphite tooling and into the tool steel and will literally burn away the metal, leaving the shape of the Graphite tool behind. It’s a pretty cool process to watch. It’s all done under water too.
What is carbon fiber composed of, mainly? I mean, I’m sure it’s not just carbon.
mainly…it’s carbon/graphite. ~92% by weight.
the way CF is made is by carbonizing chain cellulose macromolecules… the process isn’t a 100% carbonization…so some of the man-made polymer is left behind.
I wanted to know what the rest of it was 
now edited for your pleasure.