Process for producing carbon fiber reinforced carbon materials

摘要

A process for making carbon fiber reinforced materials which not only have desirable qualities which include high strength, high heat resistance, chemical resistance, wear resistance and lightweightness but also which are produced in a short time and at low cost. The process includes the steps of impregnating a carbon fiber assembly with a melt of mesophase pitch or mixing short carbon fibers with the mesophase pitch, shaping the pitch-impregnated assembly or the pitch/short carbon fiber mixture, and firing the same. The process requires that the mesophase pitch used in the process be almost 100% of an optical anistropic phase as examined under a polarizing microscope; have a softening point of no higher than 350 DEG C. and be capable of being carbonized in a yield of at least 70% when gradually heated to a temperature of about 600 DEG C. in an inert gas atmosphere and then held at that temperature for two hours.