My dad was a life long chemical engineer and many of the plants he helped design made plastic. He referred to reinforced plastics as "FRPs" - Fiber Reinforced Plastic.

It's like concrete. Reasonably strong on its own, but much, much stronger when it has something running through it. In concrete's case, rebar. In plastic's case, thread of some kind. Glass thread (fiberglass) is cheap, reasonably strong, but not very, very strong. Carbon fiber is stronger.

Virtually any material will work, as long as it meets certain design criteria. Some fiberglass car bodies use balsa wood as stiffners - after experimenting with a lot of different materials, balsa wood was found to be the best combination of light weight, high rigidity, and low cost.

Nothing wrong with calling it an FRP. It's just more sexy when you call it carbon fiber.

cdr