1. Forming continuous reinforcements and related issues

1.1 Specificity of composite shaping

• A composite material is obtained by combining reinforcements (fibers) and a matrix (resin). A distinction must be made here between short- or chopped-fiber composites and continuous-fiber composites. The two classes of material are quite different.

  The short fibers improve the mechanical behavior of the material composed of the matrix alone, but the matrix remains the basic element. Polymer processing techniques can more or less be extended to these fiber-filled materials, in particular injection molding