Flexible Strength Found in Fiberglass
What's common about a car window, a glass panel, solar cells, a
basket ball backboard and an F-15 fighter jet cockpit? These are
just some of the end products that can be made from a state of
the material that is tougher ordinary glass but is as light as
the stuff it was from.
Fiberglass, a composite material made from glass but is
toughened like steel and hardened like rock. And although the
process of heating and drawing glass has existed for thousands
of years now, using glass or fiberglass for more applications
other than car window or a mirror was more recent.
And thanks to a company known as Owens-Corring Fiberglass
Corporation the use of fiberglass for textile applications was
formally introduced in 1938, when the Owens and Corring decided
to be partners.
Although the first commercial manufacturing of fiberglass had
been two years before, in 1936, their efforts to promote it and
label it as continuous filament glass fibers was what started it
all for the fiberglass industry. Even today their company is
still one of the major manufacturers of fiberglass in the
market.
Fiberglass is formed in two ways or process. One of it is the
direct melt process by which the sand is heated and then formed
into fibers that will be molded together to form a fiberglass
panel. This is the easier and less time consuming method of
producing fiberglass.
The product of this process is already manufacturer grade. Which
means it has met all the standards for it to be considered a
Grade A product. The fiberglass yielded from this process is the
normal basketball backboards, glass panels, and other end
products that are for commercial consumer use.
Meanwhile, there is a specialized way of making fiberglass that
takes more effort and time. In the marble remelt process, the
molten material is sheared and rolled into marbles then placed
in cans and shipped at a manufacturing facility to be remelted
and formed into fibers.
The end products of the marble remelt process are more flexible
than the fibers that are manufactured using direct melt process.
This is the case because the fiber obtained from the marble
remelt process are often times used for specialized purposes or
are deployed for government research or other specialized needs
of non commercial and commercial entities. But what makes
fiberglass a very sought after commodity now a days.
Well for one fiberglass has a great weight to surface ratio.
That means that it could take considerable amounts of weight
without breaking or cracking. Because of the process from which
fiberglass is formed it developed the characteristic of
flexibility.
This happens when the molten glass is spun into fibers, each
fiber has the capacity to bend and flex to whatever the size or
weight. And this has been proven as a matter of fact that the
thinner the fibers are the easier for each fiber to bend. But
even he toughest of materials has its Achilles heel.
The fiberglass fibers are still susceptible to cracking. And the
larger the surface area of a fiberglass panel the more likly to
crack. The surface area is a very key component in finding out
the exact weight displacement that it can handle.
Besides that, humidity also plays a significant role in the
deterioration of the fiberglass. Because moisture in the air are
easily absorbed by the microscopic components of a fiberglass
panel and the more moisture a panel absorbs the more likey the
cracks at the microscopic will worsen.