GREENVILLE – US-based technology firm LaminaHeat has developed a new addition to its line of non-metallic thin flexible heating materials, which is sandwiched between woven fabrics for improved flexibility and broader potential end-uses for a variety of composite materials.
The company will be showing its latest ‘PowerFabric Plus’ range at this week’s JEC Compsoite show in Paris where it being used for resin infusion and vacuum bagging processes with an improved temperature distribution.
Made from lightweight and homogeneous carbon fibre with copper contact strips the PowerFabric Plus sandwiches LaminaHeat technology between woven textiles. It uses a standard fibre glass mat on either side to distribute heat only where it is needed and also adds structural reinforcement at the same time.
Just like the original PowerFilm from LaminaHeat, electrical current is applied to copper strips to generate evenly distributed and localised heat across the fibre sheet at required temperatures up to 572° F (300° C).
The company says PowerFabric Plus is produced in a proprietary continuous process and can employ various woven fabrics and finishing options to give manufacturers the ability to incorporate it into their products during fabrication.
It is claimed to offer advantages over heating systems that use wires or individual carbon fibres due to its better damage tolerance and improved heat distribution (+/– 7 per cent) over the whole surface area.
