Nowadays, the development of composite materials is very rapid, especially in composite material release agents, aerospace product technology, etc., and their application value is becoming increasingly significant. As functional materials, the advantages of composite materials are not only reflected in their lightweight structure, but also in their ability to meet high-performance requirements such as ultra-high speed, maneuvering flight, and repeated use for the new generation of spacecraft. Unlike traditional composite materials, new composite materials provide impetus for further development. From the overall development trend, composite materials are currently mainly developing towards high-performance, lightweight, multifunctional, and low-cost directions, and research on new materials and processes continues to be carried out.
Next, the editor of Jianyi Chemical will briefly summarize the "three transformations" characteristics of composite materials:
1. Low cost: Low cost is the major trend in the development of composite materials. Many aerospace components hope to use high-performance heat-resistant composite materials, such as carbon fiber, to improve their reliability. Low reliability materials should not be chosen solely because of their low price. Low cost also needs to be measured from various aspects, such as manufacturing processes with high yield and full utilization of material properties, reasonable material design and application, and targeting the shape and size of products. Reasonable manufacturing processes are required for the structure and usage. From this perspective, the selection of composite material release agents is particularly important because good release agents can achieve surface brightness that meets the standard for direct shipment after product release, without the need for polishing or waxing, greatly improving production efficiency.
2. High performance and lightweight: In order to meet the requirements of new aerospace, some composite materials will require higher performance. In order to further improve the accuracy of maneuvering flight, breakthrough, spacecraft landing point, and all-weather capability, it is required that the thermal protection layer of aerospace has a uniform and symmetrical ablation shape, and has the smallest possible ablation amount.
3. Multifunctionality: In order to achieve the goal of miniaturization in aerospace and improve breakthrough capabilities, many composite components must also have other functions.
Overall, the development direction of aerospace composite materials is high-efficiency heat prevention/insulation technology, long-term low erosion technology, multifunctional technology, low-cost technology, etc; Carbon/carbon composite materials are mainly low-cost technologies, further improved ablation performance, and symmetrical ablation shape technologies. After more than 40 years of research and development, the China Aerospace Materials and Technology Research Institute has gradually matured in the research and production of functional composite materials, including raw material development, application of basic theories, manufacturing processes and equipment, product performance testing, and standard bodies. It has formed a functional composite material technology system with aerospace characteristics, meeting the needs of different types of aerospace products and making great contributions to the development of China's spacecraft.
