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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...

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...

How to characterize composite a manufacturing process?

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Keywords Dry Spots, Fiber Orientation, Fiber Volume Fraction, Resin Rich Areas, Curing, Solidification, Dimensional Control, Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) Introduction This article examines the general characteristics of various manufacturing processes which involves mixing of fiber reinforcement and polymer matrix constituents to produce the composite products. These characteristics affect the quality of composite products if are not taken care of during manufacturing, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Cross-sectional view of unidirectional composite: Idealized vs real manufacturing A brief discussion on the implications of general characteristics of composite manufacturing process is as follows: Bonding between fibers and matrix In order to improve the properties of composites, a proper bonding between fiber and matrix constituents is necessary. If there is no bonding in some locations, called dry spots, no load transfer between fiber and matrix will occur. Consequently, such...

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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Manufacturing processes for Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites (FRPCs)

Role of Constituents in Advanced Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

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