Composite Materials Are The Most Common Building Products in Australia (Samara Austin)

Composite materials also known as composition materials or shortly composites are materials formed with two or more constituent materials having diverse physical or chemical properties. When these materials are joined together, a material is generated containing characteristics dissimilar in nature from the individual components. As per engineering perspective a composite is some type of material amassed physically to generate individual solitary mass without physical blending for creating a uniform material. The consequential material would still comprise components capable of being traced as the component of the diverse materials.
Composites are categorized into approximately three or four types in accordance with the filler types like particulate, short fiber, long fiber, laminate and large.

Composite materials contain two independent components like the matrix and the filler. The matrix is the element that clings to the filler jointly to create the bulk of the material. It generally consists of diverse epoxy type polymers although other materials like Metal matrix composite and thermoplastic matrix composite can be utilized. The filler is the material (vary from carbon fiber, glass bead, ceramic, sand etc.) that is implanted in the matrix to put strength to the composite. Usual engineered composite materials consist of composite building materials like cements, concrete as well as reinforced plastics like fiber-reinforced polymer. The other engineered materials are metal composites and ceramic composites (merged with ceramic and metal matrices).

The most primitive products are formed with straw & mud and found in the bricks utilized in building construction. Rough-hewn composite is created with composite material where the filler materials are more or less round. Example of this type of composite is the unreinforced concrete involving the cement as the matrix and the sand as the filler. In lead particles in copper matrix, metals are used as the matrix and the filler. Cermet is a metal matrix containing ceramic filler. Laminate is one type of composite which applies the filler material to create the shape and structure of an object of sheet rather than round particles or fibers. As for instance Formica countertop is the similar type of composite. The matrix material is generally phenolic sort thermoset polymer. The filler may include several materials ranging from craft paper (Formica) to canvas (canvas phenolic) to glass (glass filled phenolic).

The application of composites can be seen in buildings, airplanes & sports cars, structures and bridges in the form of boat hulls, golf clubs and guitars, in the panels of swimming pools, boats and baseball bats, race car bodies, bathtubs and circuit boards, storage tanks, shower stalls, marble based sinks & countertops, granite etc. The most advance application is found on spacecraft. Recently a new composite material in the form of polymer is discovered for aircraft safety.

Advantages of Composite materials
Composite materials are mould, fire, water, wear and termite resistant. The most of the materials are lightweight and help in weight savings. Weight savings may lead to less energy/fuel in operation, generate lower overall CO2 emissions and lower operational costs. High performance products include reinforced carbon or glass fibres inside a polymer resin matrix which is considered as a well-known technology for constructing lightweight structure. Besides, the composite materials are formed with different materials. These materials contain diverse strength and have the capability to obtain different amount of load for the same volume (cross sectional area) of the material.

Samara Austin is professional writer and contributed numerous articles on different industries including constructions. In this article she explains how effective are composite panel for construction.