Monday 30 March 2015

Industrial Applications For GFRP Composite

By Lelia Hall


The term, GFRP, stands for glass fiber reinforced polymer. It is what is known as a composite material, consisting as it does of a matrix of polymer that has been reinforced with fibers to give it strength. GFRP composite is used in many industries, including marine, automotive, construction, ballistic armor and aerospace.

Other types fiber reinforced polymer exist, mainly and consist mainly of carbon, basalt, or aramid. Aramid is a strong and heat-resistant synthetic fiber. Rarely, other materials are used such as wood, asbestos, or paper. The polymer part of an FRP is usually a vinylester, epoxy, or a polyester thermosetting plastic. The term thermosetting refers to the property of plastic where it is a liquid or soft plastic at low temperatures but hardens irreversibly when exposed to high termperatures.

Strong, lightweight materials have important applications in the aerospace industry. This was made obvious with an incident involving Aloha Airlines Flight 243 in the spring of 1988. The craft suffered an explosive decompression that resulted in the removal of a section of upper fuselage on the brief hop from Honolulu to Hilo. One soul was lost when a flight attendant was swept from the plane, while dozens of passengers and crew suffered injuries.

At sea, GFRPs were mostly confined to recreational water craft. It was not until three decades later that larger boats started to incorporate the material. They are particularly useful in this industry because they may be crafted into sometimes complicated configurations. They are lightweight, cheap, resistant to both impact and corrosion, and are vibration-damping.

Fiberglass is popular in the manufacture of sports cars for the same reason it is used in the maritime industry. It is lightweight and pliable. Used in the manufacture of fiberglass trucks, it increases payload capacity. Fiberglass also apparently fares better in a crash. Steel will transfer the vibrations, whereas they will remain localized in a fiberglass vehicle.

In law enforcement, military and civilian sectors, fiberglass is an important component of ballistic armor, or bullet-proof vests and other types of armor. Armor is used to protect a number of different assets, including personnel, but also building components and vehicles. A major advantage of fiberglass over steel armor is that it components may be fashioned in the field using commonly available power tools.

GFRB ballistic armor can sometimes protect rooms like courtrooms from the tendency of bullets to richocet. It is not unknown for a disgruntled hot head to shoot up the courthouse. This happens regularly on courtroom dramas like Medium, CSI and Law and Order, for example. It also happens in real life, as an incident in Tyler, Texas in 2005 shows.

One of the most deeply personal uses for FRPs is in bullet-proof vests used by members of the military and law enforcement. Of course, nothing is 100% impervious to ballistic weaponry. At the end of Series 2 of NCIS, Kate successfully intercepted a bullet meant for Jethro Gibb, only to be shot in the head by a sniper. Another popular meme on television concerning ballistic armor is stories about corruption and defective body armor being sold to the military at a huge profit.




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