Composites for military and aerospace uses

2 Composites for military and aerospace uses The preparation and properties of composites using aromatic polyamide-hydrazide fibres have been described/ and one area in which the X-500 fibres have clearly been tested as composite reinforcements outside Monsanto is that of personnel armour for ballistic protection. Type 3 seems to have given the most promising results, the stiffer types tending to fail by longitudinal splitting.  

Fibre production began in 1972 at 100000 Ib/annum with plans to increase as the market develops. Large price reductions for the fibre were timed by Du Pont to coincide with the 1972 Farnborough air show bringing epoxy pre-preg fabric for instance down to 20-30 per lb, and projected costs are expected to be lower than for carbon and boron fibres. It has been reported that the fibre will be availaWe as collimated tape, chopped fibre, yams, rovings and as woven fabric.  

It would seem that Russian workers are developing a very similar type of fibre which they call Terlon. The name is faintly evocative of poly phenylene terephthalamide) and reported properties support this. No information is available, however, on the chemical nature of the fibre. 

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