Repurposing excess textile fabrics into composite materials

Abstract

Composite Materials are materials which are manufactured with two or more components within its constitution. Using composite materials have been a common practice since the industrial revolution, with the use of plywood in the early parts of human civilization, early iterations of concrete during the ancient roman period and more recently with matrix composite materials.

Composite materials provide a more stable structure compared to their base materials on its own, due to the fact that there are reinforcements at different layers to provide rigidity and strength. The orientation of the reinforcement layers can also augment the strength of the material in a given plane. Furthermore, along with the added strength of the material, the composites are generally lighter and less susceptible to wear and tear from repeated cycles of use.

In today’s world, with a wide array of composite materials for selection, there are composite materials being synthesised to fit the specific requirements that is needed for a manufactured product. With the Aerospace Industry, the use of composite materials increased significantly where today, the Boeing 787 has 80% of its entire volume being composite material. For this Project, we will be looking at the manufacturing process and the properties of the composites that were synthesised. We will be exploring the methods of manufacturing, the heat treatment and curing process of the materials, followed by testing the samples on its strength and hardness properties.