Buyers often ask "just give me a carbon tube" without knowing how the tube is made. The process decides hoop strength, straightness, cost and how complex the section can be.
Filament winding: resin-wetted carbon tow wound on a mandrel at set angles. Best for pressure vessels, drive shafts, round tubes with controlled hoop/axial ratio. Angle layout is the real IP.
Pultrusion: continuous fiber pulled through a resin bath and heated die. Best for constant cross-section profiles - round tube, square tube, rod, angle, I-beam. Great straightness, low unit cost, terrible for complex 3D shapes.
Rule of thumb:
pressure / torque / round shell → winding
long run, fixed shape, price-sensitive → pultrusion
complex bracket with load in 3 axes → prepreg + autoclave
We run pultruded stock and prepreg-wound sleeves in-house, so we don't push one process. We match the process to the failure mode.
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