Text 3. Advanced Composite Materials

Match the following words and translations.

Composite materials are among the oldest and newest of structural materials. Men discovered early that when two or more materials are used together as one, the combination often behaves better than each of the materials alone. Following this principle they combined clay and straw to make bricks. Then with some notable exceptions, the further potentialities of composite materials remained virtually untapped for centuries while monolithic materials, such as iron and copper, served the major needs of an advancing technology. Even in the more recent times with the coming of reinforced concrete, linoleum, plasterboard and plywood panels were somewhat out of mainstream of materials development and technology.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, however, light-weight honeycomb structures, machine parts made from compressed metal powders and plastic reinforced with glass fibers became commercial realities. These developments marked the beginning of the modern era of composite engineering materials. The use of composite materials has been steadily growing. The consumption of the fiber reinforced plastics, for example, has been increasing at the phenomenal rate of 25 per cent annually. Nevertheless, the emergence of a strict discipline and technology of composite materials is barely 20 years old.

There are two major reasons for the current interest in composite materials. The first is simply the demand for materials that will outperform the traditional monolithic materials. The second, and the more important in the long run, is that composites offer engineers the opportunity to design totally new materials with the precise combination of properties needed for a specific task. Although the new composites are usually more costly than conventional materials, they can be used more sparingly, because of their superior qualities.