Ceramic Fibers and Composites
Also important in the engine compartment are ceramic fibers. both as loose bundles used for thermal insulation (like the fiberglass insulation in your house) and as reinforcement in polymer-matrix (like composites those we discussed in Chapter 5).
Most of the fibrous thermal insulation i in the fire wall between the engine compartment and the passenger compartment.
The composites are made of fibers that have been up glass chopped into short lengths and embedded in polymers.
One application for the frame that supports the radiator in cars such as the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.
Another is in the air-intake manifold, the complex duct-work that carries the air from the radiator each cylinder.
This to engine complex-shaped manifold is expensive and difficult to make from a metal but relatively easy and inexpensive to mold from glass-fiber-reinforced plastic.