A NEW SUPERHYBRID COMPOSITE-MATERIAL - VINYLON-REINFORCED ALUMINUM LAMINATE (VIRALL)

A new composite material, VIRALL, has been developed by alternately la minating Vinylon/epoxy prepreg layers and aluminium alloy sheets. Comp ared with the corresponding aluminium alloy, VIRALL exhibits about a 2 4% increase in tensile strength and a 36% decrease in tensile modulus. These results are discussed in terms of the rule of mixtures. The mos t fascinating feature is that VIRALL has a lower density and a lower p rice than the corresponding aluminium alloy. Therefore a future possib le use of VIRALL could be as a partial substitute for civil aluminium alloys.