Today, engineers and designers are challenged with the development of light weight, low cost, high performance components and structures. There are more than 50,000 materials available for the design and manufacture of a product. Every material can not be a right choice for a given application, therefore there is a need for a suitable material selection. This section will illustrate how material properties and systematic selection methods are important for quick and effective selections of suitable raw materials, adhesives and manufacturing processes.

1. Raw material selection guidelines.

2. Manufacturing process selection guidelines.

           3. Prepreg selection guidelines.

There are mainly two reasons when an engineer is involved in a material selection process.

The first step to identify a material is to define the requirements such as cost, weight, service, performance, etc. of a product. There may be several benefits a material can offer but some requirements are critical to the application. For example, weight may not be critical for a consumer product, whereas weight is critical for an aerospace part. Similarly, for an application, high wear resistant requirement may be necessary, whereas for another application, wear resistance may not be a concern at all. So it is important to prioritize the requirements of a product in the beginning of the material selection process.

Here is a checklist for setting up the requirements:

1. Strength requirement

2. Type of loading

3. Cost Requirement

4. Weight Requirement

5. Impact resistance

6. Temperature resistance

7. Humidity, chemical and electrical resistance

8. Process requirements

9. Production rate requirements

Based on the requirements of a particular application, list all possible materials, which can meet minimum or maximum requirements for the application. To narrow down the choice, set minimum or maximum requirements that the material must possess and should result in a positive yes or no. The purpose of this screening phase is to get definite answers as to whether a particular material should be considered for the application. For screening purposes, materials data from various sources are collected, reviewed and then a decision is made.

Materials data enters at various stages of the design process. But the level of accuracy required on material property differs at each stage. In the initial stage of the design process (conceptual stage), approximate data for a wide range of materials are gathered and design options are kept open. Tables 1 to 3 illustrate basic information about various types of thermoset and thermoplastic based composite materials. This information can be helpful for preliminary assessment of these materials. At preliminary stage, a designer identifies which matrix materials and fibers are more suitable. For example, for a certain application polyster resin could be a suitable choice and for another application epoxy may be the suitable choice. Similarly for any manufacturing process, a specific type of material system is more appropriate. Selection of potential materials is done from materials databases obtained from material suppliers and handbooks.

Table 2. Strength and modulus comparison of common composite systems

Table 3. Property comparison of common fabric reinforced composites (epoxy matrix resin)

The performance of composite materials can be engineered by adjusting the volume fraction of the reinforcement and resin matrix. Table 4 shows the optimal fiber volume fraction achievable with various types of reinforcements. Thermoplastic composites do not offer higher fiber volume fraction.

After the candidate materials for various types of feasible manufacturing processes are selected, prototype parts are made and then tested to validate the design. Depending upon the seriousness of an application, number of parts to be tested is decided. Aerospace and automobile parts generally require more number of tests to make sure that the part functions safely in various types of service conditions. For some consumer products where breaking of the part may not result any physical damage or injury require minimum number of tests.

There are several composite manufacturing processes available, each providing distinct characteristics. Selection of a process is done depending upon the application need. The criteria for selecting a process are production rate, cost, strength, size and shape of the part. These criteria are described here briefly.

Production rate/Speed

Depending upon the application and market needs, the rate of production is different. For example, the automobile market requires a high rate of production say 10,000 units per year (40 per day) to 5,000,000 per year (20,000 per day). For the aerospace market, production requirements are less and are in the range of 10 to 100 per year.

Cost

Most of the consumer and automobile markets are cost sensitive and cannot afford higher cost of production. Factors influencing cost are tooling, labor, raw materials cost, process cycle time, and assembly time.

Strength

Each composite process utilizes different starting material and therefore final property of the part is different. Strength of the composite part strongly depends upon fiber type, fiber length, fiber orientation, and fiber content (60 to 70% is strongest as rule).

Size of the structure

Size of the structure is also a deciding factor in screening manufacturing processes. The automobile market typically requires smaller components compared to the aerospace market, which utilizes bigger structures.

Shape

Shape of the composite parts can also play a deciding role for the production of a part. For example, filament winding is most suitable for the manufacture of pressure vessels. Pultrusion can very economically produce long parts with uniform cross-section such as circular and rectangular.

Table 5. Manufacturing process selection guidelines

Selection of materials depends upon the performance and other requirements as set in checklist above. Depending upon the laminate property requirements, the following parameters are selected.

This strongly depends upon the resin characteristics.

Adhesives are used to join two similar or dissimilar materials together. There are several considerations involved for effective use of adhesive bonding. A successful application requires good joint design, surface preparation, proper adhesive selection, and proper adhesive curing.

The goal of any bond is substrate failure. That means the bond is stronger than the joining materials themselves. In substrate failure, the parent materials fail either away from the joint or near the bond area by tearing away the parent materials. The next expectation on failure mode could be cohesive failure of the adhesive where adhesive splits in the bond area but remains firmly attached to both substrates. Adhesive failure, where adhesive releases from substrate materials is considered a weak bond and is generally unacceptable.

The first step in selecting an adhesive is to define the substrate materials and to set up durability requirements. See the above checklist for creating durability and performance requirements. Once above requirements are met then processing parameters for the adhesive bonding is defined. These include production rate, adhesive position, clamp time and position, surface preparation, fixture time, open time, cure parameters such as time, temeperature, and pressure, dispensing method, manual or automated assembly, and inspection method.

There are many types of adhesives avilable in the market. The most common adhesives are epoxies, acrylics, urethanes, silicones and polyolefins. Following Table 6 categorizes these adhesives by their relative properties.

Table 6: Adhesive selection guidelines