Improving Advanced Composites  

A composite typically consists of two or more components, one or more of high strength (the "reinforcement",e.g. a fabric made from fibers) and one of an adhesive binder (e.g. the "matrix" classically the resin).

All of the current known fiber-to fabric conversion technologies like Unidirectional (UD), weaving and  multiaxial/stitchbonding have some significant disadvantages like being slow, high fiber and resin consumption, weight, difficult to calculate etc.    

Finally there is an alternative technology to these current fiber to fabric conversion processes, respectively a complementing technology to the multiaxial process: 

The Multidirectional (MD) Technology has arrived!

At the JEC 2008 in Paris, first textile samples in carbon fiber and glass fiber were shown that have been produced on a prototype MD machine for the production of multidirectional fabric webs. The new method allows an effective production of these structures with a high quality and a homogenous fiber distribution at low area weights per sqm. Such fabric structures can be used in high-performance fiber composites, e. g. for aircraft construction, automobile manufacturing, windmill blades, high performance sail boats and other advanced applications.

CONCEPT

Multidirectional non crimp fabrics (NCF) are used in high performance fiber composite materials in many fields of production.  The advantage of multidirectional NCF structures is the production of adjustable multiple levels of fabrics in both the webbing angle and stretched individual length of fibers.

STANDARD OF QUALITY

Strict and increasing standards in regards to quality, homogenous fiber distribution with a precise light weight for each unit and cost effective production are in the future needed for multidirectional non crimp fabrics.  The MD technology will be the solution for these requirements.