Nearly a century ago, the Wright Brothers captured the airways in a plane made of little more than fabric, bailing wire and wood. This innovation and entrepreneurship marked, for Dayton, the first introduction into the Iron Age with the development and use of metals like lightweight aluminum and a variety of steel alloys. Today, composites are the new material of choice and the National Composite Center (NCC) is leading its ongoing development. The composite age is revolutionizing our society and impacting our daily lives by giving us products to use that are lighter and more durable. But what exactly are they?
Composites are created by combining two or more materials to produce a new material that retains important properties from the original components. These unique combinations deliver significant advantages over traditional materials in a wide variety of structural applications. Composites consist of a matrix material that is then reinforced with fibers that can be taken from ceramics, metals, or polymers. The reinforcing fibers are the primary load carriers of the material, with the matrix component transferring the load from fiber to fiber. Reinforcement of the matrix material can be achieved in a variety of ways including particles. Fibers may be continuous or discontinuous with the matrix material usually sourced from one of the many available engineering plastics/polymers.
For manufacturers, composites offer a flexible solution with the advantage of being able to select just the right combination of fiber reinforcement and resin material to meet both the application and property requirements of a finished part.
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