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Nearly a century ago, the Wright Brothers captured

the airways in a plane made of little more than fabric, bailing wire and wood. This
innovation and entrepreneurship marked, for Dayton, the first introduction into the Iron
Age with the development and use of metals like lightweight aluminum and a variety of
steel alloys. Today, composites are the new material of choice and the National
Composite Center (NCC) is leading its ongoing development. The composite age is
revolutionizing our society and impacting our daily lives by giving us products to use
that are lighter and more durable. But what exactly are they?

Composites are created by combining two or more materials to produce a new material
that retains important properties from the original components. These unique
combinations deliver significant advantages over traditional materials in a wide variety
of structural applications. Composites consist of a matrix material that is then
reinforced with fibers that can be taken from ceramics, metals, or polymers. The
reinforcing fibers are the primary load carriers of the material, with the matrix
component transferring the load from fiber to fiber. Reinforcement of the matrix
material can be achieved in a variety of ways including particles. Fibers may be
continuous or discontinuous with the matrix material usually sourced from one of the
many available engineering plastics/polymers.

For manufacturers, composites offer a flexible solution with the advantage of being able
to select just the right combination of fiber reinforcement and resin material to meet
both the application and property requirements of a finished part.

For more detail on the i
ii    click the highlighted words.

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