Manufacturing Advancements In Synthetic Fibers for Composite Technologies

Abstract

Fiber-reinforced composites are considered versatile materials offering plenty of benefits across various engineering applications. When scrutinizing the current trend in material selection, it is observed that fiber-reinforced composites are increasingly being utilized to replace metal alloys. Synthetic fibers dominate the majority of fiber-reinforced composites due to their outstanding mechanical properties. Several synthetic fibers show high performance when used as reinforcement for composite materials. Because of the wide usage of synthetic fibers in various applications, their manufacturing techniques have garnered the attention of researchers and scientists. The spinning technique has been commonly used to yield continuous synthetic fibers since the early 20th century. The spinning process of synthetic fibers has recently undergone a major transformation in which the spinning speed has been optimized, and the types of polymers that can produce synthetic fibers have increased. Hence, it is necessary to delve deeper into different kinds of synthetic fiber and their associated advanced manufacturing techniques. This chapter intends to highlight the manufacturing advancements in producing synthetic fibers and discuss various kinds of conventional synthetic fibers used as reinforcement for composite materials. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved including those for text and data mining AI training and similar technologies.