A Guide to Advanced Composite Materials in Everyday Life
You encounter composite materials more often than you probably realize. While they may sound super high-tech, advanced composites have worked their way into countless ordinary products we use every day.
What Are Composites?
At their core, composites involve combining two or more materials to create something with superior properties that the original materials cannot achieve alone. Cleverly blending components like reinforcing fibers with binding resins or polymers means we can engineer custom materials that are stronger, lighter, more durable, or optimized for specific applications.
Commonplace Composites Around Us
The people at Axiom Materials say that once you start looking, you will spot composites throughout your home, car, sports equipment, and more. Those carbon fiber pillars holding up your fancy patio covering? Composite. The durable resin covering shielding your bathroom tub or shower? Yes, a fiberglass-reinforced composite. Even the fiberglass prepreg used to build tennis rackets and surfboards counts as an advanced polymer composite.
The widespread use of composites goes far beyond specialty gear. Many automakers incorporate lightweight carbon fiber reinforced polymers into door panels, roofs, and other body components to reduce overall vehicle weight and improve efficiency. Composites are a go-to for countless structural and protective applications where high strength meets low weight.
Building Better With Composites
Composites do not just offer enhanced properties; they also provide advantages in how larger structures are actually designed and constructed. Case in point: Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are rapidly gaining popularity as a lightweight, weather-resistant alternative to steel for bridges, overpasses, and related infrastructure.
Compared to traditional materials, FRPs can be prefabricated offsite into modular components then rapidly assembled with adhesives rather than bolts or welds. Clever building techniques like these allow faster more cost-effective construction with improved resiliency against environmental factors.
Composites Make It Safer
While weight savings and durability factor big, safety remains perhaps the biggest advantage composites deliver, across aviation, recreation, transportation, and more. Composite materials often exhibit incredible damage tolerance, absorbing and dispersing impact forces remarkably well.
NASCAR race cars use reinforced carbon composites throughout their tubs and body panels to better protect drivers during crashes. Commercial aircraft are rapidly adopting reinforced plastics like GLARE (glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy) for enhanced impact resistance yet lightweight designs. Basically, anything involving high speeds, collisions or other intense forces stands to benefit from the protective properties of composites.
Tomorrow’s Amazing Materials
Even more amazing composite developments lie on the horizon thanks to groundbreaking nanomaterials and techniques. Researchers continually explore new ways to blend nano-reinforcements like carbon nanotubes or nanowires into conventional materials for revolutionary properties.
Early efforts produced polymer nanocomposites with astounding strength-to-weight ratios and superior thermal, electrical, and barrier capabilities. As scientists devise new nano-reinforced composite designs, we will see everything from harder rubber tires to heat-dissipating electronics components.
Other promising frontiers involve embedding advanced composites with shape-memory, self-healing, and even computational abilities. Imagine a smartphone case that could automatically unbend or repair itself from drops and scratches. Resilient, intelligent materials may end up being the norm rather than the exception.
Conclusion
From resilient car parts to safer helmets, innovative composites already contribute to better living all around us. As material scientists develop increasingly sophisticated composites using nanomaterials, recycled reinforcements, and bio-based components, we will likely see them making inroads everywhere.
Whether enabling lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles or tougher protective gear for first responders, advanced composites possess the properties to keep enhancing our everyday world. Though we may take many of them for granted now, composites stand to play an increasingly vital role in optimizing the materials that build our modern lives.
