Polymer fibre composites, basic types, principles of fabrication, and properties. Part 3. Basic types of polymer fibre composites, properties, and use.

The basic types of polymer composite materials (PCMM) made from different kinds of reinforcing fibre fillers: short-cut fibres, paper, yarns, tow, sliver, fabrics, and nonwovens, and their properties and use are examined. Information on the fabrication and properties of the different kinds of composites are reported: extruded fibre plastics, getinaxes, textolites, unidirectional composites, honeycomb plastics, and others. New kinds of composites with ultrahigh mechanical and thermal characteristics are also examined. Some of the reported information was previously covered very sparely in the literature. Based on the examination, the features of polymer fibre composites are summarized in comparison to other materials, and they can be summarized as the following basic points: 1) combining different kinds of fibre fillers and matrices (binders) allows fabricating PCM with a wide range of properties by selecting the optimum indexes for articles with a broad spectrum of applications; 2) articles made of fibre PCM are not very materials-intensive and are technologically effective for processing in comparison to many traditional materials, metals and ceramics in particular; 3) with respect to the specific mass characteristics, fibre PCM can be many times superior to articles made of traditional materials—metals, etc., so that the mass (weight) characteristics of articles made of fibre composites can be significantly reduced, which is especially important for using them in vehicles, aircraft, rescue equipment, and sporting goods; 4) articles made of composites have high performance reliability, are almost immune to corrosion, and do not require special protection or periodic painting of the surface. Due to the features of the properties and use, fibre PCM have a great future in the most varied areas of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]