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Role of Constituents in Advanced Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

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Advanced composites are made of the fiber and matrix materials. The boundary where fiber and matrix come in contact with each other and form a bond is called the interface. These three constituents contribute to the overall behavior of composites. In this article, we be discussing the role of each constituent in the manufacturing of advance polymer composites. Fiber Constituent The fibers are mainly responsible for the improved properties of advanced composites. Typical fiber materials used in the manufacturing of polymer composites are glass, carbon and aramid. These are all synthetic fibers and these days the natural fibers of various types are also getting attention in various applications. Pros and cons of using the fiber form of reinforcement constituent are listed below: Pros: Superior strength of the fiber form Generally, materials are available in their bulk form that refers to their existence in a relevantly large volumes. Such finish forms of these materials are already avail...
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The Bigger Picture of Composite Manufacturing

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Manufacturing of composites is one the most important aspect in the composite applications. Ideally, composite manufacturing involved the mixing of reinforcement materials with matrix material, and there are variety of fabrication methods to produce diverse structural applications. However, before going into its details, we should look into the traditional metal manufacturing technology. Traditional Metal manufacturing v/s Composite Manufacturing Metal manufacturing technology for structural applications is relatively well matured. In metals, the material fabrication and structure fabrication are two separate processes. Firstly, the finished form such as rods, slabs, or sheets of metals are fabricated. Further working is then carried out on these finished forms of metals to fabricate the final products. Metal manufacturing of structures usually involve complex tooling and complicated assembly procedures. On the contrary, in the composite manufacturing the fiber and matrix constituents ...
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What are Fiber Reinforced Composites (FRCs)?

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Keywords: Reinforcement; Matrix; Interface; Types of Composites Introduction to Composites All engineering materials we encounter in our daily lives can be broadly divided into three categories: (1) metals, (2) polymers and (3) ceramics. Sometimes, the properties of these materials are unable to meet our requirements, consequently, we make composites by mixing together two or more constituent materials from these categories, as shown in Figure 1, to achieve the desired properties. You should keep in mind that the composites are developed by macroscopic mixing of constituents which distinguish them from metal alloy counter parts in which constituents are soluble in each other. Figure 1. Structural materials vs composites Now, let us further dig into the composites constituents. One of the constituents in a composite is called the reinforcement that is embedded to the other constituent, called the matrix , to improve its properties. The reinforcement material is strong and discontinu...
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Manufacturing processes for Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites (FRPCs)

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There various ways in which fiber and matrix can be combined together to fabricate composite products. Here are the most commonly used manufacturing processes, along with brief summary listed in Table 1.  Open mold In this process, the composite product is made by hand layup of woven fiber mat or chopped strand mat wetted out with thermosetting resin in the mold. Sometimes, a spray of chopped fiber with resin to the mold for little or no bearing products with small production volume. Bag molding It is slow and labor intensive process that is not suitable for mass production. It is commonly used to manufacture complex, high quality structural parts in aerospace industry. It is slow and labor intensive process. Prepreg, made of continuous fiber preimpregnated with thermosetting plastic, is the starting material for this process. The use of autoclave ensures the quality of products.   Compression molding It is used to produce products from short fiber reinforced thermosetting pla...
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Role of Constituents in Advanced Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

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Advanced composites are made of the fiber and matrix materials. The boundary where fiber and matrix come in contact with each other and form a bond is called the interface. These three constituents contribute to the overall behavior of composites. In this article, we be discussing the role of each constituent in the manufacturing of advance polymer composites. Fiber Constituent The fibers are mainly responsible for the improved properties of advanced composites. Typical fiber materials used in the manufacturing of polymer composites are glass, carbon and aramid. These are all synthetic fibers and these days the natural fibers of various types are also getting attention in various applications. Pros and cons of using the fiber form of reinforcement constituent are listed below: Pros: Superior strength of the fiber form Generally, materials are available in their bulk form that refers to their existence in a relevantly large volumes. Such finish forms of these materials are already avail...
Read more

The Bigger Picture of Composite Manufacturing

Image
Manufacturing of composites is one the most important aspect in the composite applications. Ideally, composite manufacturing involved the mixing of reinforcement materials with matrix material, and there are variety of fabrication methods to produce diverse structural applications. However, before going into its details, we should look into the traditional metal manufacturing technology. Traditional Metal manufacturing v/s Composite Manufacturing Metal manufacturing technology for structural applications is relatively well matured. In metals, the material fabrication and structure fabrication are two separate processes. Firstly, the finished form such as rods, slabs, or sheets of metals are fabricated. Further working is then carried out on these finished forms of metals to fabricate the final products. Metal manufacturing of structures usually involve complex tooling and complicated assembly procedures. On the contrary, in the composite manufacturing the fiber and matrix constituents ...
Read more