Composites Overview

From providing shelter for early civilisations to paving the way for future developments, composites have been particularly important to the humanity throughout the history. Most notably, composites are advantageous due to their resistance to corrosion, design versatility, longevity, lightweight, and strength. Products made from composites are not limited to a particular field but finds their application spanning across the construction sector, sports, medicine, space applications and many more. It seems unlikely that projects like rocket ships would have been implemented without the use of composite materials. New materials, applications, and methods make this sector fascinating to work in. Using hybrid virgin and recycled fibres speeds up and automates production. Composite materials are rising at 5% annually worldwide. Carbon fibre demand is expanding at around 12% per year. Nowadays, many composites are manufactured for purposes other than just improving the materials’ mechanical qualities, such as strength. Composites are also engineered to be excellent heat conductors or insulators, and/or to have magnetic characteristics; these features are highly precise and specialised, but they are also incredibly significant and valuable. Composites find their use even in electrical and electronic devices, such as transistors, photovoltaic cells, various sensors and detectors, semiconductor diodes, and lasers, as well as in the production of anti-corrosive and anti-static surface coatings. Other applications of these composites include lasers and sensors. This chapter is a collection of topics such as importance and history of composites, types and manufacturing process materials used for composite construction, applications and case studies.