Development of Innovative Technologies for Composites Having Through Plane Alignment of Fibers

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The normal composite materials usually contain fibers with in-plane alignment leading to enhanced strength properties and are very widely used. Through Plane Aligned (TPA) composites can exhibit many other enhanced properties, such as wear and abrasion resistance, porosity, thermal and electrical conductivity in the lateral direction, and barrier properties, etc. This makes these materials suitable for use in many high value products. Some examples are; electronic devices and sensors, filter or barrier membranes for many processes, laterally conductive ceramic based heat exchangers for highly corrosive industrial applications and for high temperature fluids, abrasion resistant materials having laterally oriented ceramic fibers. At present the TPA materials are not considered a viable option for many applications as there is no economical mass fabrication technology in existence. Therefore, this research program aims to develop technologies for high volume fabrication of TPA composite materials. Three different methods will be used; a) Fabrication of TPA composites based on sheet extrusion followed by an innovative folding/cutting/curing process; b) Fabrication of TPA composites based on foaming followed by axial compression leading to flattening of bubbles and alignment of the fibers in the lateral directions; c) Fabrication of TPA composites based on application of magnetic field when magnetically active fibers are used in conjunction with the previous foaming based process. The development of each process will be followed by optimization experiments to attain stable production process for a particular material combination. In the long term detailed scientific studies will be carried out on these processes to enable a large group of materials to be used; such as elastomers, olefins, etc., with different fibers. Therefore, a broad range of TPA composites can be produced suitable for a wide range of applications. The successful development of technology for TPA composite fabrication will be beneficial for the Canadian manufacturing sector as a producer of these high utility, value-added materials and the suppliers of the technology. This is especially significant as this sector is continuously facing job losses and introduction of a new technology will bring some relief to it. Concurrent to the development of these processes, a pool of HQP will also be trained who can take advantage of this technology and introduce it to the Canadian manufacturing industry, leading to economic advantages.