Composite fiber is a material comprised of two or more materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties. When combined, the new material has different properties than its individual components. This method of custom-creating materials according to their individual properties has as many applications in manufacturing and industry. Composite fiber has been used in the manufacture of swimming pool wall panels, race car bodies, motorcycle parts and concrete. This versatile material is fully customizable with regard to strength, thickness, and lateral rigidity.
Here are five things you should know about composite fiber:
- Composite materials have been used by humans since ancient times. Mesopotamians glued strips of wood together with resin in different directions to form plywood as early as 3400 B.C., and ancient Egyptians used straw to reinforce mud bricks.
- Composite fiber is made up of a mix of resins and polymers that combine to form the matrix, and fiber that is combined with the matrix to produce the final material. By altering the components of the matrix, the strength of the final material can be customized by choosing resins that cure with greater hardness for a stronger material, or cure more softly if a more flexible material is needed. It’s important to choose matrix components that possess the correct characteristics for the final material, because the matrix transfers the load between fibers, binds fibers together, and prevents buckling.
- Strands of fiber used in composite material can be directed to control the stiffness and appearance of the final material. Strength is directionally dependent, so the orientation determines the torsional strength of the final material. When fibers are oriented in multiple directions, strength is uniform throughout the material.
- When carbon is used as the fiber in the composite, the resulting material is lightest and strongest material per weight known to man. Composite carbon fiber is stiffer and stronger than titanium and steel, and bears three times the strength of aluminum at half the weight.
- The fibers in a composite are incredibly versatile and can be woven to improve the aesthetics of a product, or to create strong, flexible fabrics, or ground down to produce durable, lightweight parts for bicycles and motorcycles.
Gasket King has harnessed the accuracy and versatility of composite fiber technology to custom fabricate durable, affordable replacement gaskets for your vintage motorcycle. Our gaskets are made in the United States from high-quality American materials, and are protected by our Gasket King guarantee.
