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A fibre composite material is created by combining at least two components: one of which must be a fibre material and present in a fibre form. This is embedded in other components – the matrix. The matrix keeps the fibres in shape.
Owing to the wide range of fibre and matrix materials, there are any number of variations in the production of fibre composite materials. Apart from glass, carbon and synthetic fibre reinforced plastics, ceramic/ceramic, metal/metal and ceramic/metal composites are now being used as well.
Fibre composite technology exploits the fact that a material in fibre form is far stronger than the equivalent material in a compact shape: the thinner the fibre, the greater the rigidity.
This is because the rigidity of an actual solid depends on both the theoretical rigidity of the material and also on faults in the structure of the material which act as crack risers. The fault probability is however very much lower than in compact workpiece because of the fibre's low volume.
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