Overview on macrofiber composite applications

Developed at NASA Langley Research Center during the late 90's, the Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) are manufactured by Smart Material Corp. in a full-scale production, today. Numerous research projects have proven the concept of using the MFC in vibration and noise control applications, as well as for health monitoring, morphing of structures and energy harvesting. Because basic performance parameters of products are considerably improved, like for example energy economy, precision and comfort, a widespread use of active structures is expected in the next future. Different MFC types are commercially available meeting already the requirements of a variety of applications. The migration from research projects to high volume, cost effective commercial applications has generated additional need for new MFC designs, electronics on microcontroller and chip level, and system design tools, as well. In this paper, we give an overview of recent progress in the development of the MFC transducers and MFC systems technology.