Examples of Polymers and Composites in Use

FIGURE 1.1 Fiberglass/epoxy-covered cedar stripper canoe. 

The largest static composite structures are bridges. Most bridge eomposites are decking materials comprised of fiberglass. Relative to structures that move are the B-2 stealth bomber which is made of graphite/epoxy. The B-2 is one of the most 

Polymers have fonnd application in medical devices due to a combination of mechanical properties, ability to withstand the environment of the body, and also inertness relative to the body. Polymers and composites have been used as heart stents and valves, artificial joints, replacement vertebrae, bones, and so on. 

Automotive applications include body panels, belts, tires, hoses, composite drive shafts. One of the authors knows local race car drivers in Denver, who will thermoform plastic door panels for their race cars with an ordinary shop vacuum. Recently, there has been a carbon fiber composite automobile frame proposed by Colorado Company. Aerospace applications are airplane wings, filament-wound rocket bodies. There are also homebuilt experimental aircraft which are rolled into the sun to cure the epoxy matrix. One of the largest composite structures in space is the composite arm made by Canada for the Space Station. 

Other civil engineering examples of polymers and composites are geotechnical fabric for soils, polymer natural gas pipe, fiberglass reinforcing-bar (re-bar), composite I-beams, as well as the aforementioned decking for bridges. 

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