Plastics fiberglass composite materials

What do bamboo stalks, mud bricks, steel-belted radial tires, fiberglass fishing rods, reinforced concrete, and the heat tiles on a space shuttle have in common The answer is that these materials are all composites. A composite is a material consisting of two or more components with overall properties different from and superior to either or any one of the individual components. For example, many pleasure boats today have hulls made of a composite material called reinforced plastic that contains glass, plastic, carbon, or some other type of fiber embedded in plastic. The composite material is stronger, more durable, and less dense than the fibers or plastics of which it is made. 

Suppose we change our attention from structures in which the driver is functional consideration alone to something like an automobile where cost is also extremely important. We can get the functional job done with other materials, like steel and aluminum and fiberglass in certain places and unreinforced plastic in others. Then, the question becomes can we make a material substitution that will enable us to compete with the cost of these other materials to do a job that with all the other materials we cannot accomplish That is a different kind of question, and then cost becomes an extremely important driver. And, as cost of advanced composite structures goes down, we can expect to see more and more utilization of advanced composite materials. 

U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,881,367 [56] and 6,890,637 [57] (both by Elk Composite Building Products) disclose a process of forming of a wood-thermoplastic composite material, comprising 25% by weight of 20-50 mesh wood fiber, 40% of plastic such as polyethylene or polypropylene, and 35% of chopped fiberglass of about 0.25-1 in. in length. 

Fiberglass reinforced plastics are families of composite materials. The performance of the composite material is dependent on and achieved by the selection and combination of three components resin or matrix system, glass type and form, and process. 

Watanabe M. Effect of water environment on fatigue behavior of fiberglass reinforced plastics. In Tsai SW, editor. Composite materials, testing and design (fifth conference), ASTM STP 674, American Society for Testing and Materials 1979. p. 345-367. 

H = History if a plant has used material successfully for many years, and the staff members know its strengths and limitations, how to weld it, etc., hesitate before making a change. For example, a fiberglass-reinforced plastic had given excellent service for many years when another composite from the same company, with the same name but a different number, was used instead, it failed overnight. 

Materials called composites are also in widespread use. A composite consists of small fibers of one substance embedded in a matrix of another substance. The fibers reinforce the matrix, adding stiffness. One of the first composites was fiberglass, in which thin fibers of glass reinforce a plastic material. Fiberglass is strong yet light in weight. 

Polymers are often used in conjunction with other materials as composites. The most familiar types are the fiber-filled composites such as fiberglass and the carbon-, boron-, or Kevlar-filled advanced composites. Granular-filled composites such as those using clay as extenders in some plastics or ground quartz added to dental plastics to increase their wear resistance also represent an important class of materials. In these cases the presence of a second phase as well as the interface between polymer and filler increases the complexity of the failure analysis. 

Composites, and more specifically, fiberglass reinforced plastics, have been used as structural materials for a wide range of applications in several fields of technology and construction such as water and sewage transport and treatment, storage, ships, pedestrian bridges, column overwraps and build-... 

The electrical insulation properties of LCP are excellent, and because the LCP is homogeneous material, it is not prone to void formation as in fiberglass epoxy composite. The electrical breakdown strength of LCP is higher than polycarbonate—a plastic that is well-known for its good electrical properties. 

Reinforced Thermosetting Piping Fiberglass Pipe Institute/Composites Institute, a Division of the Society of the Plastics Industry, 355 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017 The Materials Technology Institute of the Chemical Process Industries, Inc., 12747 Olive St. Rd., Suite 203, St. Louis, MO 63141-6269... 

Fiber Reinforced Plastics Fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) or polymer matrix composites (PMC) are now frequently used in automotive, aerospace, boating, sporting goods, construction and other applications. Unfortunately, these products go by many different names. For example the FRP materials made with glass fibers often are call glass reinforced polymers (GRP) or simply fiberglass. 

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