In order to improve the thermal and mechanical properties of 2D laminated carbon fibers preforms a needling process is usually carried out. This mechanical treatment is done using long needles which penetrate the perform and are then extracted at a high frequency. The needling induces a partial rearrangement of fibers in a direction which is perpendicular to the overall orientation of the carbon fibers in the 2D laminate.

Needling process on a standard 2D carbon preform (left) and in-detail texture of the needled component (right)

Besides its expertize in needling of standard 2D preforms, Petroceramics has also developed an innovative technique in order to tailor the needling process to extremely different architectures, such as sheet wound preforms.

Needling process on a sheet wound carbon preform (left) and in-detail texture of the needled component (right)