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

普通复合材料通常含有平面内排列的纤维，从而提高了材料的强度性能，应用非常广泛。通过平面排列（TPA）复合材料可以表现出许多其他增强的性能，例如耐磨性和耐磨性，孔隙率，侧向导热性和导电性，以及阻隔性能等。这使得这些材料适合用于许多高价值的产品。一些例子是；电子设备和传感器，用于许多过程的过滤器或屏障膜，用于高腐蚀性工业应用和高温流体的横向导电陶瓷基热交换器，具有横向定向陶瓷纤维的耐磨材料。目前，由于没有经济的大规模制造技术，TPA材料在许多应用中并不被认为是可行的选择。因此，本研究计划旨在开发TPA复合材料的大批量制造技术。将使用三种不同的方法；a)基于板材挤压和创新的折叠/切割/固化工艺制备TPA复合材料；b)制造基于发泡和轴向压缩的TPA复合材料，导致气泡变平，纤维在横向上排列；c)当磁性活性纤维与之前的发泡工艺结合使用时，基于磁场的TPA复合材料的制备。每一种工艺的开发都将伴随着优化实验，以获得特定材料组合的稳定生产工艺。从长远来看，将对这些过程进行详细的科学研究，以便能够使用大量材料；如弹性体、烯烃等，具有不同的纤维。因此，广泛的TPA复合材料可以生产适用于广泛的应用。TPA复合材料制造技术的成功开发将有利于加拿大制造业作为这些高实用性、高附加值材料的生产商和技术供应商。这一点尤其重要，因为该行业不断面临失业问题，而新技术的引入将在一定程度上缓解这一问题。在开发这些流程的同时，还将培训一批HQP，他们可以利用这项技术并将其引入加拿大制造业，从而带来经济优势。

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.