How to Manufacture Performance Composite Parts

Composite materials offer strength, durability and design flexibility to industries including aerospace and extreme automotive as well as medical and marine applications. With an excellent strength-to-weight ratio and the capability of meeting specific flammability and fatigue criteria requirements.

Many high-performance composite parts are assembled via multiple steps involving interactions between polymers or epoxy matrix materials and reinforcement materials such as glass fibers or carbon fibre, such as carbon nanotubes. These anisotropic materials allow designers to produce strong yet lightweight products capable of withstanding large deformations while still possessing significant reserve energy at their point of failure - for instance the iconic carbon composite wing tile on Space Shuttle Columbia being one such product.





Manufacturing composite parts requires tools, also known as molds. The type of composite materials and performance requirements determine which tools are the most suitable. Machinable foams and fiberglass may be appropriate for prototype or low-volume production while polymers and epoxy boards may be better suited to more complex or higher performance parts. Pattern & Mould Making When producing parts which must be cured under vacuum or an autoclave environment metal tooling may be required.

Liquid composite molding (LCM) is an industrial technique for producing high-performance composite materials using closed molds. Mold fabrication typically entails closing a mold around dry fibrous or metallic reinforcement, then applying pressure or vacuum-drawing an epoxy polymer resin through it, then curing once filled. LCM provides an economical alternative to autoclave cure techniques when processing high-performance aerospace and automotive structural components, sports equipment, prosthetics, and wind turbine blades. Modern fabrication techniques - including flat bed tape laying machines from companies such as Automated Dynamics, Coriolis Composites and ADD Composites - have made LCM a more realistic possibility on a smaller and less costly scale.