Brief History of Fiber Reinforced Polymers as Structural Material

Abstract

Throughout history different kinds of composite materials were used for several reasons. Mixing components with different properties the emerging new material can show highly improved material characteristics. This article copes with Advanced Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) as structural material. The trend of the utilization of FRP is continuously increasing not only in transportation or sport industry but also in building industry. Beside the traditionally used base materials new fiber and resin materials are still developing. This paper reviews the brief history of FRP and its often-used base materials. Material properties, advantages and disadvantages, production methods are also discussed.