Composite material reinforcement materials. Another important factor is the gross quantity of material to be produced. Large quantities can be used to justify high capital expenditures for rapid and automated manufacturing technology. Small production quantities are accommodated with lower capital expenditures but higher labour and tooling costs at a correspondingly slower rate. Many commercially produced composites use a polymer matrix material often called a resin solution. There are many different polymers available depending upon the starting raw ingredients. There are several broad categories, each with numerous variations. The most common are known as polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyimide, polyamide, polypropylene, PEEK,
Polymer fractionation Polymer fractionation Polymers are chainlike molecules that are made of the same repetition unit. With a few exceptions such as proteins, a polymer consists of a mix of molecules with different chain lengths. Therefore average values are given for the molecular weight like the number average, the weight average or the viscosity average molar mass. A measure for the width of the molecular weight distribution is the polydispersity index. The targeted manipulation of the molecular weight distribution of a polymer by removing short and/or long chain material is called polymer fractionation. The molecular weight of polymers has a large influence