Unifibre

Unifibre reinforcements are non-woven, non-crimp unidirectional fabrics used together with epoxy, polyester or other matrix resins to produce high performance structural components.

While UNIFIBRE non-crimp fabric is generally employed in applications where mostly single direction reinforcement is required, a comparison showing the structural  superiority of composites reinforced with non-crimp fabrics compared to woven plain and twill weave reinforcement is illuminating. 0/90 laid up UNIFIBRE reinforced laminates with a weight fibre content show an increase in strength and stiffness of up to 35% compared to conventional woven fabric reinforcement.

UNIFIBRE fabrics consist of a sheet of parallel reinforced fibres held fabric form by means of fine adhesive coated polyester threads laid at intervals across the fabric surface.

The versatile manufacturing process allows a large variety of reinforcement fibres to be manufactured into UNIFIBRE - and in a wide range of widths and areal weights.

UNIFIBRE        Fibre Type

Fibre Properties

 UNIFIBRE Available Widths mm UNIFIBRE Avaiable Weights g/mSq

Tensile strength MPa

Tensile Modulus   GPa

 Density g/cc Elongation at break %
E Glass 3445 73 2.58 4.8 25-1000 200-1000
S Glass 4890 87 2.46 5.7 50-1000 260-1000
T600 Carbon 4300 230 1.79 1.8 25-1000 150-800
T700 Carbon 4900 230 1.80 2.1 25-1000 125-800
T800 Carbon 5490 294 1.81 1.9 25-1000 150-450
M40J Carbon 4410 377 1.77 1.2 25-1000 300-450
K13710 Carbon 2600 640 2.12 0.4 25-1000 300-450
2200 Aramid 3010 101 1.45 3.0 25-1000 100-300

Other UNIFIBRE types have been produced to special order: e.g. heavy tow carbon Panex 48k and Fortafil 80k, Dyneema superpolythylene, PBO.

Unidiredtional fabrics are those which have fibre in one direction only, held together by (as a rule) polyester thead on the weft.  This type of fabric offers optimum load bearing capacity and gives optimum strength where the  direction of the load is requirec.