backplate in carbon fiber?

[scubafanatic]

I have two Kydex plates from Tobin... they are wonderfully engineered and are the best choice for me to reduce weight both for diving or for traveling.

I'm using 3 of Tobins 'medium' KYDEX ones...a little over $ 200 each, if you're wondering.....

 

[mrfixitchapman]

Would love to see some pics of your setup. Sounds very interesting!

It's just a 2" webbing version of the old Hawaiian backpack. Mine has two tank straps that go through the same holes in the wing that they fit through when the backplate is installed. I thread the tank straps through the holes in the wing and strap the tank down. Couple puffs of air in the wing to make it take shape, slide into the shoulder straps , buckle the waist band and off you go. I made a few extras to show around and all the equipment fabricators told me that it was nice, but there isn't any money in minimalist gear.

DC

 

[Tortuga68]

As for the cracking while flexing issue that could be corrected by simply using a hybrid cloth of Carbon and Kevlar with a core material possibly, also if you are worried about the strap slots they can be reinforced by putting some small pieces of alloy plate into the layup.

Are you able to estimate the weight of the finished product?

 

[BrianG701]

Unfortunately I have not had to much chance to play with hybrid cloths, but if you take a 5.6oz per square yard fabric at say 6 layers (about 1 yard) + say 3oz. of alloy + about 4oz. resin (extra added so that air bubbles don't come in from the feed line) and I would say that you could IN THEORY get the weight to about 11oz. give or take an oz. or two.

The main thing I need to give it a go is a BP to make the mold off of and use as a template for the slots and holes, and oh yeah a bit of time too

 

[Tortuga68]

I can see that it might be interesting/fun to make one, and 'cool' to own one, but for <1 pound weight saving (compared to a light alloy plate), I'm not really seeing the benefit for travel... even on short island-hopping flights - eg Singapore to Tioman - where the nominal baggage limit is still 10kg/22# it seems like there'd be better weighs to save weight, with less risk

 

[nelsondejesus]

Instead of scouting around for a carbon fiber backplate, I think the kydex backplate manufactured by Deep Sea Supply would meet your requirements. Its what me and my wife are using, especially when travelling.

 

[thomjinx]

I am another very happy user of Deep Sea Supply's Kydex backplate. With a 17 lb wing and a hog harness it is very light and streamlined. Because the whole rig is slightly negative, it also requires less lead than most BCDs.

And as far as the appearance (of CF) goes, who even sees it when you have it on?

-Thomjinx

 

[nelsondejesus]

Was in Hongkong dive expo, saw this carbon fiber backplate being sold by one of the exhibitors, namely "dive formula" and decided to buy one. Still have to set it up though and will check how durable it is once i try it out.

 

[nelsondejesus]

correction, it was "scuba formula" not "dive formula"

 

[eelnoraa]

Graphite Fiber Reinforced Plastic ("carbon fiber") in practice may give you about a 20-50% weight advantage over aluminum. But considering the low mass off Aluminum plates (mine is about .65kg, and I haven't used it in over 3 years), you aren't gaining much.

This is right on. Volumn for volumn, carbon filter is less than 50% of the weight of AL. HOWEVER, this is pointless. To make CF the same strength as AL, you need to use more CF (volumn wise), the net weight reduction is like 30% if not less. And this is for tube shape structure (such as camera tripod) which is in favor of CF. For flat plate structure, I even double CF will offer any strength to weight ratio.