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Aluminium use in Aerospace industry was limited to fatigue and corrosion

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Aluminium use in Aerospace industry was limited to fatigue and corrosion. Compared to current composites, aluminium corrosion was faster with minute striations indicating airframe fatigue. The striations were at times invisible to the bare eye and this meant that the Aluminium airframes were subject to host checks and other non-destructive tests to identify cracks that could end up being disastrous. Consequently, the aerospace industry adopted suitable repair schemes to enhance fatigue metal fatigue life. Fatigue promotion also resulted from compression stresses that called for precautionary measures using various management methods. These management methods included torque tightening and shot peening that became very famous. Additionally, the use of metals in the aerospace industry was limited to difficulties in further improvement of metallurgy and restricted scope for metal weight reduction(Edwards, 2008). For instance, although Aluminium-lithium achieves weight reduction, the cost of lithium is high and compared to convectional aluminium, while the machining process calls for extreme care. These limitations paved way for the development of superior compound materials to substitute aluminium alloy components for use in the airframes in the 1970s.

Composite materials are composed of a minimum of two technologies and/or materials with properties that are specific for a given application and that differ from those of each forming material independently(Edwards, 2008). The resulting composite materials comprise of fibrous fortifications that bind collectively with a matrix material and comprise polymer composites. These composites are mostly plastics strengthened with carbon fibres. Reinforcement process involves setting carbon fibres into resin to form piles or sheets then layered on each other forming sub-components whose strength and stiffness vary depending on the direction of laying down different piles together(Dwarakinath, 2013).