Carbon Fiber Tubing

The Best for Any Industry

Marine, Industrial, Aerospace, Military, and More!

We come across new and sometimes very unusual applications for our tubing every day. Our “Happy to Help” attitude has brought us a very diverse array of customers from performing arts to NASA. We focus on building advanced composite tubing, with the capability to deliver large diameters and extremely long lengths. Contact us to see what we can do for you.

Katy Perry’s Prismatic Tour

Engineering and Design

Although we are not a full service composite engineering firm, we have helped many customers get their products from concept to reality. From custom end fittings and connections to structural laminate design and stress analysis, our staff can help you come up with a functional elegant design for whatever your product is. For engineering work in the “heavy lifting” category, we can refer you to a composite specific design firm we regularly work with.

Our Process

Capabilities

4-Axis Continuous Fiber Braiding

4-Axis Continuous fiber braiding offers extremely durable tubing from approximately 1/2” ID up to 12” ID and continuous lengths from 10’ up to 60’. This tubing has relative high percentage of axial fibers and is mostly suited for compression, tension and bending applications.

Small Round Braided

Large Round Braided


Rectangle Braided

Square Braided

Roll Wrapping Pre-Preg

Roll wrapping pre-preg allows us to offer more off axis fibers for torsion or pressure applications. Roll wrapping lends itself to thinner wall applications because of the availability of very thin pre-preg material. This also allows for a more controlled OD surface without post machining. We typically build diameters ranging from .1” ID to 12” ID, and lengths from 6” up to 11’.

Machining and Assembly

Just outside of our walls a few miles down the road we have built a relationship with a CNC machine shop that has nearly dedicated their capabilities to machining carbon fiber parts. They often turn our bare tubes or blank plate into elaborate machined parts. We also have extensive experience in bonding and assembly of composites parts that have been proven in applications ranging from NASCAR to NEAR SPACE. We are happy to share our wealth of knowledge of adhesives or we can quote on finished assemblies.

Flat Stock

Flat carbon fiber plate from .125 up to .375” thick. Various laminate designs to get the most strength possible. Carbon fiber plates offer endless possibilities for fabrication and assembly.

Stock Tubing

We don’t really “stock” tubing. There are so many different wall thicknesses and fiber orientation options that most tubing is custom built for the application. What we do consider stock, is tubing sizes that we already have a mandrel for (tooling). After picking a mandrel, we will engineer a laminate and build the tubing to you specs. This can usually be accomplished in about a week. In some rare cases I may have tubing in stock for products we commonly build, so don’t be afraid to ask us.

Finish Coatings and Paint

We have two 40’ long paint rooms that are constantly full cycling parts through. We offer a variety of finished coatings including beautiful Yacht quality paint finishes, UV cured finish systems, High-wear ceramic infused coatings or even a paint prep process which takes a significant portion of the prep work out if you choose to do your own finish work.

No Coating

Clear painted

Ceramic Coating

Sizes and Sections

We offer many different sizes and shapes of carbon tubing to choose from. We have many round, square, rectangular, airfoil and oval sections available. Not all of our available sections are listed. We are always getting new sizes and shapes for custom projects. Please contact us to see if we have something that may work for you.

Section Drawings

What they’re saying

The carbon fiber tubing we use in the Mosquito Air Helicopter has proven to be very reliable and strong. Forte offers a good product at a very reasonable price.

John Uptigrove - Innovator Technologies

Before and during the 2002/2003 Around Alone race, we broke every type and every brand of sail batten you can imagine. This is one thing about Ocean Planet’s unstayed (freestanding) mast, that it is very tough on battens. However, for the end of the Around Alone and for the Vendee, we are using custom braided S-glass/carbon fiber battens by Forte… Forte battens are incredible, and it is so nice not to have to worry about battens anymore.

Bruce Schwab - Skipper Ocean Planet

Thanks for the awesome new mast for Strummer. It’s made a huge difference; she’s a much better boat, definitely stiffer and faster. We took 2nd (Class IV) in this year’s (2007) Bermuda 1-2. Lots of days in the 25-30 knot range. No problems with the rig at all.

Louis Meyer Strummer — Hinkley Pilot

My Forte mast is fantastic. It is light and extremely strong… two gales in the Bay of Biscay and three flying gybes (thanks to autopilot malfunctions) with the spinnaker up, and each time it came through unscathed. ACADIA Once I gybed in 30 knots of wind 2 miles from the finish with a full main and broke one of the running backstays, so no backstays on downwind… no problems.

Clay Burkhalter - Team Acadia

Strong, light and fairly priced ~ a good value! That’s what our clients tell us about their Forte poles. And we appreciate having a reliable source of spinnaker poles to meet our clients’ expectations.

Lisa Vizzini - Port Townsend Rigging

I would like to thank you, Tony and all the crew at Forte for the great service and excellent product. As you know, we were without a supplier for a mast, spirit and spinnaker pole for the new Rocket, and your company was the only one with a “can do!!”attitude. Right from helping us to pick the correct mandrel, creating the laminate schedule, to helping us construct the first mast, you went beyond the call of duty. We were nervous that the mast would be too stiff, and had lots of “nay sayers”, but when we set the rig up and went for our first sail, it was just what we were looking for!! Keep up the great work!!

Alan Barnes - Rocket Boats

Bare Tubing to Finished Products

In addition to unfinished / bare carbon fiber tubing, we can also provide many other post manufacturing services.

  • Sanding painting / coating
  • OD turning
  • Centerless grinding
  • Machining
  • Hardware installation (end fittings, hardware, etc)
  • Assembly
Contact Us Today!

Applications

Our tubing has been used in a wide range of applications

  • Light Aircraft
  • Prototype Aircraft
  • Aerospace
  • Radar and GPS antennas
  • Communication towers
  • Stiffening and reinforcing beams
  • Wind power
  • Autonomous craft
  • Unmanned vehicle capture booms
  • Underwater equipment

  • Telescope housing
  • Large telescope truss tubing
  • High Altitude Craft
  • Robotic arms
  • Transport beams
  • Measurement devices
  • Electronics housing
  • Mining equipment
  • Performance arts and production
  • Oil and Gas down-hole applications

  • Printing rollers and guides
  • Truss Structures
  • Security gates
  • Photography and motion picture
  • Energy generation
  • Manufacturing beams
  • Product distribution
  • Medical equipment
  • Solar Energy
  • Fuel Cell housing

Get Started with Forte

Contact us to see what we can do.

Contact Us