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- In industry, any purpose-designed engineering
- material created by combining single
- materials with complementary properties into
- a composite form. Most composites have a
- structure in which one component consists of
- discrete elements such as fibres (for
- example, asbestos, glass or carbon steel in
- continuous or short lengths, or `whiskers',
- specially grown crystals a few millimetres
- long, such as silicon carbide) dispersed in a
- continuous matrix, such as plastics,
- concrete, or steel.
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