Jun 30 2007
‘Tough as steel, lighter than aluminium’ is the way in which Fibretech describe their new wonder product, which they hope will revolutionise the use of composites in the aero industry.
Fibretech, a small manufacturing company in the N E midlands, has come up with a big, big product!
This ‘wonder product’ is a stainless steel sandwich…a cellular core of sintered stainless steel fibres between two thin, solid layers of stainless steel.
This combination gives the product the strength of steel, but with the ultra-light weight benefits of aluminium, and is now being marketed under the brand ‘Fibrecore’™
The product also has a significant number of other properties which are likely to have tremendous benefits for the aero industry.
The material has very high energy absorption properties, which means that it can withstand impact much better than conventional materials (for use in military aircraft), combined with very high sound and vibration damping qualities (very important in civil aircraft).
Unlike most ‘composites’, Fibrecore ™ is fully recyclable, and can be fashioned in the same way as conventional steel. It can be drilled, milled, pressed, punched and welded into shape, giving much greater versatility to the user.
Fibretech are confident that Fibrecore™ will find similar applications in the automobile and construction industries, where these properties will offer significant improvements over existing products in the market.
Lee Marston, the technical manager at Fibretech explained:
“This product is the culmination of several years’ international research, and we are convinced that we now have a product that will help revolutionise aircraft manufacture. We have been developing this product over the past six years, and have worked in close collaboration with a number of International research establishments including, Cambridge University (UK) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) and Volvo Technology Transfer (Sweden)”
“The sintered stainless steel core is created using a process unique to Fibretech. Known as ‘Rapid Solidification Technology’ a mat of non woven stainless steel fibres is produced, ranging in thickness from 1.2 mm to 4.5 mm.”
The stainless steel fibre matting has many of the above properties, but by bonding this unique material between two layers of stainless steel, a product of incredible strength and lightness has been achieved.
Fibretech have indeed succeeded in creating the ‘Ultimate in-flight Sandwich’!