JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #131 - Novembre/December 2019 - 60

SOLUTlONS material specification

Material specs for industrial
applications of composite materials

Shuichiro Yoshida,
CEO
FRP Consultant Corporation

f a designer wants to make an
object from metal, how will
he describe it on the drawing? For instance, if he wants
to make a product with aluminium, numbers referring to aluminium alloys such as A6061
and A7075 will be quoted.
Similarly, SUS301 or SUS304
will be used for stainless steel,
and S25C or S45C if it is carbon steel.
This number is the "name tag"
that determines the material's
specifications and corresponds
to the "material specs number".
Thus, material specs are pervasive in metal materials, which
are already established as general-purpose materials in the
industry.

What is the most important thing when using composite materials for a
general-purpose industrial application? Some may say "lowering costs"
or "improving moulding techniques". While these opinions are valid, they
do not directly lead to relevant solutions. In this paper, FRP Consultant
explains the "material specifications" the company considers to be one of
the solutions to turn composite materials into general-purpose materials.

Material specs
are a common language
defining basic specifications
For the designer, there may be
an aspect in which a material's
characteristics are complex and
difficult to understand. However, even if one does not understand the composition ratio in
the case of an alloy, for example, designers will always check
whether the material has appropriate characteristics (properties, configurations, quality) for
the objects to be created based
on the drawings. Thus, the role
of material specs is to clarify
the material's basic attributes
or characteristics. At the same
time, material specs play a very
important role as a common
language between material producers and designers (Figure 1).

Fig.1: The important role of material specifications

Main purpose of
composite material specs
Before discussing the content
of composite material specs,
it is important to understand
their purpose, which is to
define the minimum requirements needed to supply or
purchase the composite material for use in a given application or design.
In this regard, composite
manufacturers very often
reply "as it is our own knowhow, it cannot be disclosed".
For metal, the material specs
already exist and are public.
So, today, if designers want
to use a composite material,
they must create a document
listing the material characteristics required for their application, which is unnecessary
when using metal materials as
these standards already exist.
Designers can either determine the material's minimum
requirements by themselves
or cooperate with a person or
company having knowledge
of the material's properties.

jec composites magazine / N°131 November - December 2019

The key is to change
producers' perceptions
So how should these minimum
requirements be defined? Here,
the barrier is the producers'
(designers and material suppliers) perception that a material's
characteristics are a trade secret
and cannot be disclosed. On the
other hand, standards cannot be
created unless a certain number
of a material's basic attributes or
characteristics are clearly stated.
In order to overcome this situation, it is essential to change the
minds of composite producers
(Figure 2). Both composite
manufacturers and application
designers must be able to clearly state a material's characteristics; the former for its product
specifications and the latter for
the design requirements needed for the final product.
Therefore, it must be possible
to easily convert a manufacturer's product specifications so
they can be used to determine if
the material can be used for the
final application. To help composite producers and designers
communicate, FRP Consultant
offers its support through various tools.

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #131 - Novembre/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #131 - Novembre/December 2019