A Review of Preforms for the Composites Industry

Preforming technology has emerged as core to the manufacture of engineering composites with enhanced properties at reduced production costs. Textile technologies such as weaving, knitting, braiding, stitching and nonwoven individually or in combination have been utilized in the design and manufacture of 1D, 2D, and 3D preforms boasting increasingly complex architectures. Current research appears to be geared towards reducing the occurrence of delamination as well as improving out-of-plane impact properties by through-the-thickness reinforcement. Utilization of improved impregnation techniques has played a vital role in the processing of preforms for the aerospace, automotive, marine and other advanced engineering applications. The current and previous research on preforms as well as the techniques used in their manufacture has been reviewed in this article and future emerging trends highlighted.