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From plywood to aircraft wings, composites can be found throughout modern society and are increasingly being used in place of traditional materials like wood and metal.
For millennia, humans have been combining different materials to create something that is more durable, flexible and capable than their constituent parts.
Composite manufacturing dates back to ancient brick-making when straw was added to wet clay or mud to accelerate the drying time and provide a stronger finished brick. Metal reinforcement bars in concrete structures perform much the same function. Concrete, the second most used material in the world after water, is itself a composite of loose stones and cement.
The primary reason for making composites is enhanced strength, as in the examples above, but it’s not the only one. For instance, a composite material may be less expensive, lighter, water and heat-resistant, more rigid, electrically conductive or a combination.
Modern composites have been designed to fulfill a specific need and are routinely used in industries such as aerospace, automotive, defence, marine, medical devices and sports equipment.
Common examples include engineered wood, carbon fiber, fiberglass, fibre-reinforced plastics and advanced ceramics. The list of composites is constantly growing as researchers experiment with different material combinations and develop new varieties, processes and applications.
On 3DEXPERIENCE Make, we offer composite manufacturing options across multiple processes such as 3D printing, CNC machining service, Laser cutting service and Injection molding service. 3DEXPERIENCE Make is an On-Demand Manufacturing platform, which connects designers or engineers with industrial service providers. Our service providers are mostly based in North America (United States and Canada) and in Europe (United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Germany etc...).
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Check & repair or Geometry check is a feature that helps you to understand Geometry issue of your part and could repair it live and online.
Check & repair or Geometry check is a feature that helps you to detect geometry issue on your part and repair it online and live.
This feature is available only for 3D Printing service. It helps you check the manufacturability of your part, depending on the materials and the process.
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Composites are made by bonding two or more materials with complementary strengths and weaknesses together. They typically include a binding substance called a ‘matrix’ and a ‘reinforcement’ material that, once combined, provides superior properties to each individual component.
Though many are human-made, there are numerous natural composites, such as wood, which combines cellulose fibers in a matrix of lignin.
Most composites are created from the mixing of wet materials which harden or set over time. A process that can take anything from hours to weeks.
The matrix and reinforcement can be easily seen in the final composite. This characteristic is what separates composites from chemical compounds, solutions and mixtures.
Combining different materials and volumes together changes the enhanced synergy between them, enabling scientists to precisely optimise a composite to solve a particular problem.
Despite their generally high cost, fiber-reinforced composite materials are increasingly being relied upon for high-performance applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio. They can better withstand the stringent requirements and loading pressures faced by aerospace structures, boat and scull hulls, bicycle frames and racing car monocoques.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 both have airframes, fuselages, wings, rudders largely comprised of composites.
Composites also continue to replace wood and metal in a wide variety of sporting goods, including tennis racquets, baseball bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks, rowing paddles, fishing rods, and all manner of boards and supports.
The manufacturing processes used to create glass and carbon fibers are crucial to understanding modern composite manufacturing.
Carbon fiber is made from organic polymers of between 5 to 10 microns in width (approximately 0.005mm to 0.1mm). The exact ingredients for the fibers usually depend on the manufacturer and the brand, but most contain organic polymers.
1. The raw materials are spun and stretched into long fibrous strings of molecules held together by carbon atoms.
2. These strands are washed and stabilized with chemicals.
3. The fibers are heated to around 300 degrees which force the carbon molecules to bond tightly together. This process, called carbonization, concentrates and purifies the carbon and provides a high strength-to-volume ratio.
4. The surface of the fibers is treated to oxidize them and improve bonding properties.
5. The carbon fibers are then wound onto bobbins and loaded into spinning machines to twist the fibres into yarns of different thicknesses and woven into fabric. Sheets or strips of this fabric are typically impregnated with resin and allowed to cure. Or, the loose fibers are pressed together with a plastic polymer via heat, pressure or a vacuum to form a composite material.
Fiberglass is made from silica sand with other ingredients such as limestone and soda ash to reduce the melting temperature and control other properties.
A variety of techniques are used in composite manufacturing and the method employed will reflect the intended application. Other deciding factors include the cost of materials and equipment and the number of items to be produced.
The properties of the finished item will be determined by the properties of the component materials and by how the matrix and reinforcement are combined.
Common composite manufacturing processes include:
Aluminium, Nickel, Stainless, Steel, Titanium, etc...
ABS, POM(Acetal/Deltin), PEEK, PTFE, HDPE, PEI, PC, PP, etc...
Wax support, UV Curvable, etc...
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