Bøger af G. Pritchard

Any series with a title beginning Developments in. . . is obviously intended to report innovatory and novel ideas. The trouble with innovatory thinking is that it often seems too esoteric for practical people to bother with. Certainly, this book is not meant primarily to be a quick-reference manual for fabricators. Its purpose is rather to signal the kind of developments which almost certainly will impinge on the world of reinforced plastics in, say, four or five years' time. In this particular volume most of the authors have directly or indirectly addressed the practical problems of processing and fabrica­ tion with reinforced plastics. There has been no attempt to review the current state-of-the-art of producing fabricated articles in reinforced plastics by such techniques as filament winding or pultrusion because these subjects have already been well covered elsewhere. Nor have I even tried to provide a comprehensive survey of all that could be called new in this field. Instead, I have simply taken a number of important and somewhat underestimated topics, generally material­ orientated rather than machine-centred, and asked leading figures to summarise the scene. At the risk of appearing arbitrary let us consider the first chapter by Cattanach and Cogswell. They tell us how a new material has been produced which not only adds to the range of composites available, it makes possible new fabrication processes (at least, new to FRP). Consequently it should result ultimately in many new markets and products. The opportunities are lucidly and imagina­ tively set out.

One of the most interesting developments in composite materials technology during the past decade has been the attempt to displace thermosetting resins from their position as the natural matrix in 'advanced' composites for sUl;h fields as aerospace. Dr McMahon gives some indication of the nature of this challenge in his chapter on fibre-reinforced thermoplastics. He acknowledges the problem of their low fibre contents, with the associated possibility of inadequate mechanical properties, especially in compression; and draws attention to the way in which the lack of suitable teSI methods for composites in compression has caused difficulties in assessing the latest thermoplastics composites in this respect. It is therefore of special interest that Professor Piggott deals with the whole question of compression tesllflg of composites in Chapter 4. On the positive side, reinforced thermoplastics seem to be much more damage-tolerant than thermosets. This is clearly an advantage that will not be lost on the aircraft industry. The subject of damage repair to FRP is one of substantial concern; the wider question of defect detection and assessment is discussed authoritatively by Reifsnider and Henneke in Chapter 3, which focuses on the technique of thermography.

Covers novel additives, the established varieties and also considers environmental concerns, interactions between additives and legislative change. This book is suitable for those concerned with plastics and additives.