Reinforced plastic

Reinforced plastics are a recent class of composite materials in which the low modulus and temperature limitations of plastic is overcome by reinforcing it with fibres of high modulus.

Reinforced plastics find extensive use in many fields, such as automobiles and corrosion-resistant equipment like fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) tanks, vessels, etc.

Reinforced plastics, also known as polymer-matrix composite (PMC) and fiber reinforced plastics (FRP), consist of fibers (the discontinuous or dispersed, phase) in a polymer matrix (the composition phase). These fibers are strong and stiff and they have high specific strength (strength-to-weight ratio) and specific stiffness (stiffness-to-weight ratio). In addition, reinforced-plastic structures have improved fatigue resistance, greater toughness and higher creep resistance than similar structures made from steel.

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