Fiber Metal Laminates—Matching the Best in Composites and Metals

Abstract

Fiber metal laminates are advanced aerospace materials consisting of thin high-strength aluminum sheets bonded together with fiber-reinforced adhesive epoxy. In them, the most attractive qualities of composites are combined with the desirable features of metals, resulting in structural materials with high strength and low density, formability, and impact resistance. Their most distinguishing feature is excellent fatigue resistance, which is two to three orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional aluminum alloys. Their major disadvantage at present is their high cost in comparison to that of conventional aluminum alloys. They do not offer strength-to-weight ratios as high as advanced polymer composites, but are more ductile and amenable to fabrication techniques developed for metallic structures. The origin and technology development of ARALL and GLARE, the two main families of fiber metal laminates currently in the market, are briefly reviewed here.