Free Form Fibers employs advanced laser-driven chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) technology to manufacture high performance ceramic fibers.
Free Form Fibers is a privately held company in Saratoga Springs, NY that has developed a process based on rapid chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to create inorganic High Performance Fibers (HPFs) for use in a variety of challenging applications. These applications appear in military and aerospace (turbo machinery, rockets, advanced structures), automobile, biomedical, energy and other industries that require advanced materials with exceptional strength, stiffness, heat resistance and/or chemical resistance.
HPFs are sought when a combination of extreme material properties is required which cannot be met by existing metal filaments or by carbon, glass, vegetal or mineral fibers. Of the many advanced materials known, only a select few have been made into HPF and, until now, there has been no generic process by which fibers from such materials could be formed. Thus far, the manufacture of a given HPF has required an ad-hoc process and unique technology platform that is usually not appropriate for other materials. Closely associated with these are long development times, unique technical challenges, major capital investments and significant development costs. It has also become clear in recent years that the issues of energy ‘footprint’ and waste streams are important, and that HPF manufacturing is typically hugely energy intensive, with significant waste byproducts. All of these issues have inflated costs and held back growth of the HPF industry and industries dependent on it. Our objective is to change the game and make new fiber materials available to our customers — quickly and inexpensively.
If you would like to explore the development of a new fiber material, or if you are looking for a new source of pure, dimensionally controlled silicon carbide, boron, or boron carbide fiber, please Contact Us.