What is Composite Material?

Composite materials are materials in which one type of material is a matrix and the other type is a combination of reinforcements. A variety of materials complement each other in terms of performance, resulting in a synergistic effect, the overall performance of composite materials better than the original composition to meet a variety of different requirements.

Composites matrix material is divided into two major categories of metals and non-metallic. Commonly used metal matrix are aluminum, magnesium, copper, titanium and their alloys. Non-metallic matrix are mainly synthetic resin, rubber, ceramics, graphite, carbon and so on. Reinforcements are mainly glass fiber, carbon fiber, boron fiber, aramid fiber, silicon carbide fiber, asbestos fiber, whisker, wire and hard particles.

The history of composite materials can be traced back to ancient times. The straw-reinforced clay that has been used since ancient times and the reinforced concrete that has been used for more than a century are both made of two kinds of materials. In the 1940s, glass fiber reinforced plastics (commonly known as glass steel) were developed for the needs of the aviation industry, and the name of composite materials has emerged from then on. Since 50s, high strength and high modulus fibers, such as carbon fiber, graphite fiber and boron fiber, have been developed. Aramid fiber and SiC fiber appeared in 70s.

These high-strength, high-modulus fibers can be composited with a variety of non-metallic substrates such as synthetic resins, carbon, graphite, ceramics and rubbers or metallic substrates such as aluminum, magnesium and titanium to form unique composite materials.