Why Advanced Composites Are Your Best Choice in Multiple Industries

Advanced composites have been a staple of the aerospace and defense industry for decades. Now, we are experiencing a movement that may have been inevitable from the beginning. The benefits of advanced composites mean they are being adopted by many other industries as well, and with good reason.

As composite manufacturing techniques have matured, the benefits of advanced composites when compared to traditional materials is paving the way to a future of advanced composite materials in construction and manufacturing. With these highly adaptive materials, projects across a wide breadth of industries can all enjoy the same benefits afforded by composites, such as lighter-weight products and strong cost-to-value ratios. Below, we go into greater detail about why advanced composites are suitable for any industry – not just aerospace and defense.

What Makes Advanced Composites a Good Fit in Other Industries?

It’s easy to see why traditional materials are slowly phasing out for advanced composites. Consider these following reasons:

• Strength-to-Weight Ratio: advanced composites are substantially lighter than traditional materials like steel and aluminum while offering greater strength.
• Durability: composite materials can serve in environments that are highly corrosive to many traditional construction materials. A high level of stability allows advanced composites to maintain their properties under a wide variety of external circumstances.
• New Design Options: whereas traditional building materials are limited to only specific sizes and shapes, advanced composites can be utilized to solve a wide array of design challenges. The ability to tailor the laminate properties means that a solution can be customized to meet the needs of a specific opportunity.
• Accessibility: new manufacturing techniques and improved automation methods are improving yields and reducing the costs associated with the manufacturing of advanced composites.

Other Industries Incorporating Advanced Composites

Aerospace companies and defense companies already have an intimate familiarity with advanced composites. That won’t change any time soon. In fact, we anticipate even more growth within those two industries over the coming years with regards to composite engineering.

That being said, advanced composites have already been embedded in multiple other industries. We will touch on a few of those now.

The Marine Industry

A vast majority of recreational boats are being produced using composite materials. Not only is it easier to replace large assemblies of metal parts with singular composite pieces, but it is also easier for boat manufacturers to produce boat hulls that fit into a wide variety of shapes. That means less production time and less maintenance required once those boats end up on the water.

Saltwater is a notoriously unforgiving environment, beyond the corrosive qualities of the water are the punishing swells the boats are expected to endure year after year. The marine industry needed something to outperform metal and wood in this way, and advanced composites have delivered.

The Auto Industry

In the automobile industry, we have observed a similar rise to prominence of composite materials thanks to an ever-growing variety of vehicle shapes. Composite integration first began in the 1950s, when composite materials were initially used to strengthen the bodies of automobiles.

Then, additional benefits became clear. Composite materials were molded and shaped to yield streamlined designs. Besides being more aesthetically pleasing, these cars were also thought to perform better due to their shape and lighter weight. When you put it all together, you have a modern automobile industry that has placed a refined focus on durability and resilience. With current efforts to improve fuel economy and safety, composite materials are poised to see continued growth in automotive fields.

Many, Many More Industries

This marks just the tip of the iceberg. Construction, appliance, electrical, and even civil infrastructure – all of these industries are applying advanced composites to new and innovative purposes. Just as advanced composites have revolutionized the aerospace and defense industries, so too will they mark unprecedented growth in others.

Do you want to learn more about how advanced composites are being utilized in the modern age? Consider contacting Mentis Sciences. We utilize a unique combination of New England ingenuity, subject matter expertise, and the highest standards of performance to manufacture solutions for every project’s needs. Discover what we can do for you with a call today.