ABSTRACT
This chapter is designed to aid the basic understanding of the processing of polymer composites. It starts with the introduction of the composites and their classifications. The classification of composites is done on the basis of matrix and reinforcement. Classification by polymer matrix is discussed in detail. The reinforcement is further classified into particulate and fiber. Fiber is further classified as natural and synthetic fiber, which are either in short form or in continuous form. Several advantages and applications of the composites are discussed in this chapter. Different methods of fabrication of thermoplastic and thermosetting composites along with their applications, advantages, and limitations are discussed in detail in this chapter. Recently, there has been a trend of use of the microwave-assisted compression molding (MACM) technique to fabricate the polymer composites. Therefore, to aid reader understanding, detailed discussion of MACM is presented in this chapter.
