THE SURFACE-FINISH CHARACTERISTICS OF COMPOSITE COMPONENTS

Composite materials are finding an increasing number of applications, not only in the aerospace industry but also in the marine, automotive, sports goods industries and in many other fields. In many instances surface finish is critical, or at least important, since in the former it reduces skin friction and hence drag and fuel consumption and in the latter a good surface appearance is a cosmetic necessity. This paper examines the surface characteristics of some composite components and investigates the interactions between the curing conditions for the composite component, the tool and the related component surface characteristics and the performance of the finished component, The results show that the surface-finish characteristics can be controlled by the cycle pressure and that the nature of the tooling material may have a significant influence.