I just noticed this and hope someone from DJI can weigh in. I'm not sure why but there are two different types of carbon fiber weave being used on the production model of the Inspire1. Anyone have thoughts as two why two different weaves of carbon would be used for the same production model?

This is a photo of my USA model Inspire1. The carbon appears to be some type of unidirectional weave.


This is a photo posted by another forum member from the US of their production model utilizing a plain weave.

I'm hoping for a herringbone tweed.

Thats truly a major difference.....
I am interested too see where this goes, yours is definatly different in finish.

Actually, I see this as a really big deal especially for the cost... Form and function are critical but so is aesthetics!  The herringbone weave is signature for carbon fiber and looks awesome.  I truly hope mine is not the ugly weave shown on top from Joola's model.

hopefully they are using carbon fiber that does not carry vibration linearly so it will resist splitting. in this case it looks like both might resist splitting, but i am guessing one is just from a different and possibly less expensive stock..hopefully not weaker. i am no expert but i know what happens to fishing rods. If there are defects it causes weak points and they break.
hopefully this is new and stronger..maybe dJi will have an answer..all i can do is speculate.

This is just a matter of Taste, the UD Carbon looks more appealing to me compared to the typical 3k Carbon weave. Others love the 12k

I just received this response from DJI Support:

"Now we have two kinds of carbon fiber on Inspire 1, and both of them are the normal versions we shipped out."

Not very illuminating, but it's a good thing I prefer the appearance of UD carbon fiber.

Oh no... I strongly dislike that CF and much prefer the look of the CF weave

There was an explanation from DJI on RC Groups

The classical CF tube is made of prepreg. The inner part is made of undirectional prepreg and the surface is a layer of 3K woven prepreg.

The other CF tube with larger patterns is made from a completely different process, which is filament winding. You could consider a winding tube is made of semi-woven CF completely, from the bottom to the surface. Compare to prepreg tubes, winding tubes shows much better torsion strength but is more difficult to manufacture, it heavily relies on expensive automation equipments. On the other hand the tooling to make prepreg tubes is very simple and cheap.

Both prepreg tube and filament winding tube meets the standard of inspire 1 so they will not bring in any noticable performance difference. As a matter of fact two tubes cost almost the same. DJI chooses to use them both simply to secure the supply chain.

Dr. Turbo

I like the look of the upper picture better myself. Either way, I can't wait to get my hands on it!

DaveM Posted at 2015-1-8 03:30
There was an explanation from DJI on RC Groups

Like this weave.