Reinforcements
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Core Composites offers a wide variety of hard to find fabric reinforcements for your advanced composites applications.


Fiber Selection:

Carbon Fiber - The highest stiffness to weight ratio of any advanced fiber with a good selection of modulus from 33 msi (230 GPa) to 85 msi (588 GPa) PAN based carbon fibers have a low specific gravity (1.8 gm/cm2) and excellent tensile and compressive strengths. With both Vinyl Ester (VE) and epoxy sizings and a wide variety of woven, knit and braided styles readily available, carbon is going to enhance the performance of almost any product by saving weight and improving stiffness. Designed properly carbon can be a cost effective alternative to traditional materials.

Aramids - These fabrics have a density of 1.44g/cc compared to 2.55 g/cc for fiberglass. They are twice as strong as E-Glass and ten times as strong as aluminum. Aramids approach the strength of high strength carbon on a specific tensile strength basis. This material is 43% lighter than fiberglass. Aramid is the generic name for Kevlar™ by DuPont and Twaron™ by Teijin.

S-Glass - High Strength Glass offers six vital enhanced properties critical for demanding applications: strength (40% higher than E-Glass), impact resistance (higher elongation and toughness than E-Glass), stiffness (20% higher than E-Glass), temperature resistance (200 C higher than E-Glass), fatigue (longer life for highly fatigued parts), and radar transparency. The "S-Glass family" is made up of three unique products: The S-2 Glass (assembled yarns and rovings, epoxy sized), Vetron (direct pulled vinyl ester sized rovings) and Zentron (direct pulled epoxy sized rovings). Compared to E-Glass the S-Glass products will save weight and improve all mechanical properties at a moderate price premium. When compared to aramid or carbon fiber the S-Glass family may deliver better cost performance.

E-Glass - The work horse of all reinforcements offers excellent price to strength value. It is available in a wide variety of yarn/roving weights which allows for unlimited design potential in fabric styles/weights that can be woven, knitted or braided. E-glass has good dimensional stability, is moisture resistant, chemical resistant with excellent electrical ("E") and thermal insulating characteristics at low cost.

Fabric Construction:
 


Carbon 2x2 Twill

Kevlar®/Glass 3x1 Twill

Glass Plain Weave		 Wovens - Woven composite fabrics are typically characterized as cloths (or woven roving for glass fabrics made with heavier input "rovings"). There are a number of weaves available in composite reinforcements. Below are some of the most common weaves and their characteristics.
 


Carbon +/- 45

Kevlar/Glass +/- 45

Glass 0/90		 Knits - Constructed from combinations of layers of unidirectional reinforcement stitch bonded together with a non structural yarn (normally polyester). The advantage is that fibers lie flat with no crimp for greater strength. You can orient the fibers on any axis such as 0, 0/90, +/- 45, +/-60 or combinations of each of these. They are often referred to as Biaxials, Triaxials or Quadriaxials. These fabrics can also be stitched together with a chopped strand mat glass (CSM) or similar material.
 


Carbon 2x2 Twill

Kevlar®/Glass 3x1 Twill 		Uni's - Unidirectional reinforcements have all of the fibers oriented on one axis, usually in the 0° (warp uni) or 90° (weft uni). Fibers can be bound by weaving or knitting with a non structural yarn or with a variety of hot melt resin products. Uni's provide excellent strength but require more labor to apply in multiple layers and narrower widths are recommended to ease handling on contoured parts.
 


Carbon 2x2 Twill

Kevlar®/Glass 3x1 Twill 		Braids - Braided fabrics can come as a tubular sock which is excellent for encapsulating an entire shape such as a wakeboard core blank or as a "flat braid" where the tube is slit and stabilized on the edge. This allows a 2D fabric with interlocked fibers like you have in a woven fabric for good puncture resistance while offering axis's other than 0/90 which wovens are limited to in most cases. You can also add fiber in just one region of the braid for say a triaxial construction where you may have carbon running in the 0 direction for the middle section of a fabric and +-45 E-glass for the remainder. In this way you use the carbon very efficiently and reduce the part weight and cost. A good example would be a stringer beam. Braids come in a wide variety of weights and fiber options.
 

* All of the above fabrics are available as prepreg
 
CARBON FABRICS

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KEVLAR / HYBRIDS

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FIBERGLASS FABRICS

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