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Fiberglass
What Is
Fiberglass?
by Todd Johnson
Fiberglass, or
“glass fiber,” is much like Kleenex, a Thermos or a Dumpster in that a
trademarked name has become so familiar that people usually only think of one
thing when they hear it.
As
a Kleenex is a tissue or a Dumpster is a trash bin, Fiberglass is the fluffy,
pink insulation that lines the attics of people’s homes, right?
Actually, that’s only a part of the story.
The
Owens Corning company did trademark the widely used insulation product known as
Fiberglass. But, fiberglass itself has a familiar base structure and a
wide variety of uses.
Fiberglass Background
Fiberglass really
is made of glass, similar to windows or the drinking glasses in the kitchen.
The
glass is heated until it is molten, then it is forced through superfine holes,
creating glass filaments that are very thin – so thin they are better measured
in microns.
These
threads can then be woven into larger swatches of material or left in the
somewhat less structured although more familiar puffy substance used for
insulation or soundproofing.
This
will depend on whether the extruded strands were made longer or shorter, and
the quality of the fiberglass.
For
some applications, it is important for the glass fibers to have fewer
impurities, which involves additional steps in the manufacturing process.
Manufacturing With Fiberglass
Different resins may
then be added to fiberglass once it is woven together to give it added
strength, as well as allow it to be molded into various shapes.
Common
items made of fiberglass include swimming pools and spas, doors, surfboards,
sporting equipment, boat hulls and a wide array of exterior automobile parts.
The
light yet durable nature of fiberglass also makes it ideal for more delicate
applications, such as in circuit boards.
Fiberglass may be mass-produced in mats or sheets or custom-made for a specific
purpose.
A
new bumper or fender on an automobile, for example, may need to be custom-made
to replace a damaged area, or for the production of a new model.
For
this, one would create a form in the desired shape out of foam or some other
material, then layer a fiberglass coated in resin over it. The fiberglass will
harden, then can be reinforced with more layers, or reinforced from within.
But,
for items like shingles, a massive sheet of a fiberglass and resin compound may
be manufactured and cut by machine.
It should be noted
that fiberglass is not carbon fiber, nor is it glass-reinforced plastic,
although it is similar to both.
Carbon fiber,
which is made of strands of carbon, cannot be extruded into strands as long as
fiberglass, as it will break.
This,
among other reasons, makes fiberglass cheaper to manufacture, although it is
not as strong.
Glass-reinforced
plastic is what it sounds like – plastic with fiberglass embedded into it to
increase strength.
The
similarities to fiberglass are apparent, but a defining characteristic of
fiberglass is that the glass strands are the main component.
Recycling Fiberglass
Although there has
not been much advancement in the recycling of fiberglass items once they have
already been produced, fiberglass itself may be manufactured from recycled
glass and is often done so.
Owens
Corning has reported the production of fiberglass insulation with as much as
70% recycled glass.
Todd Johnson
· Regional Sales Manager for
Composites One, a distributor of composite materials.
· B.S. in Business Management
from University of Colorado Boulder's Leeds School of Business
· Business Development Manager
for Ebert Composites Corporation
Experience
Todd Johnson is a former writer for ThoughtCo,
who wrote about plastics and composite materials for 2-1/2 years between 2010
and 2013. He is a Regional Sales Manager at Composites One, a composite
materials distributor in San Diego, CA. Johnson provides support to the Greater
San Diego manufacturers of fiber reinforced and polymer products. He regularly
attends composite industry trade shows including JEC, ACMA, SME, and SAMPE. In
2008 he presented at the Global Pultrusion Conference in Baltimore, MD.
Previously, Todd spent six years as the Business Development Manager for Ebert
Composites Corporation.
Education
B.S., Business, Management, Marketing, and
Related Support Services - the University of Colorado-Boulder's Leeds School of
Business; attended Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.
Todd
Johnson
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
ThoughtCo is a premier
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