Development of a powder coated fibre pre-processing route for production of fibre reinforced composites

As a critical material for next generation aeroengines, fibre reinforced composites such as silicon carbide reinforced titanium continue to attract strong attention from both industrial and academic sectors. Reducing the processing costs and increasing component processing flexibility remain the priorities of current research. This paper presents a novel powder coated fibre pre-processing technique to meet such industrial requirements. The proposed technique is based on slurry powder metallurgy and presents itself as a cost effective alternative to current processing methods. It involves firstly, mixing matrix powder particles with an appropriate organic binder and solvent to form a slurry, drawing a continuous silicon carbide fibre through the slurry, drying the coated fibre and finally laying up the fibres into a composite preform for subsequent consolidation. The organic component is removed from the preform matrix via a binder burnout phase prior to composite consolidation.