About Glass Fiber

Glass fiber (or fiberglass) is an inorganic non-metallic materials with excellent performance, a wide range of advantages is good insulation, heat resistance, good corrosion resistance, high mechanical strength, but the disadvantage is the brittle nature, wear resistance is poor. It is made of glass balls or waste glass as raw material by high temperature melting, drawing, yarn, weaving and other processes, its monofilament diameter of a few microns to more than twenty microns, equivalent to a hair of 1/20-1 / 5, each bundle of fiber filaments are composed of hundreds or even thousands of monofilaments. Glass fiber is commonly used as reinforcing materials in composite materials, electrical insulation materials and thermal insulation materials, circuit substrates and other areas of the national economy.

Properties of Glass Fiber

The appearance of smooth cylindrical surface, cross-section is complete round, round cross-section to withstand the load capacity; gas and liquid through the resistance is small, but the surface is smooth so that the holding force of the fiber is small, not conducive to the combination with the resin; density is generally in 2.50-2.70 g/cm3, mainly depends on the glass composition; tensile strength than other natural fibers, synthetic fibers to be high; brittle materials, its elongation at break is very small ; water resistance and acid resistance is good, while alkali resistance is poor.

Glass fiber, abbreviated as GF. long glass fiber is abbreviated as LFT. short glass fiber is abbreviated as SFT.

Application of glass fiber

The most used base resin for LFT is PP, by PA, but also PBT, PPS, SAN and other resins are used. Different fibers need to be used for different resins to achieve better results.

Plastics are ubiquitous in everyday life, from common consumer goods to durable consumer goods. To improve the strength of plastics, thermoplastic materials are often reinforced by glass fiber or carbon fiber. In the face of high loads and impact stresses at high and low temperatures, ordinary short glass fiber materials are often unable to match, in which case the polymer begins to soften or become brittle, and long glass fiber reinforced polymers come into being.

Long glass fiber generally refers to the glass fiber with length over 10mm.

Taking PP as an example, we briefly analyze the advantages and application fields of long glass fiber modified PP and short glass fiber modified PP.

Long glass fiber reinforced PP plastic

Long glass fiber reinforced PP plastic refers to modified PP composites containing glass fiber lengths from 10 to 25mm, and through injection molding and other processes to form a three-dimensional structure with glass fiber lengths greater than 3.1mm, as an automotive module carrier material, this material can not only effectively improve the rigidity, impact strength, creep resistance and dimensional stability of products, but also make complex automotive module products.

Particle form of long glass fiber reinforced PP

Generally, it is columnar particles with length of 12mm or 25mm and diameter of about 3mm. The particles of about 12mm length are mainly used for injection molding, while the particles of about 25mm length are mainly used for compression molding. In this kind of particle, the glass fiber has the same length as the particle, and the content of glass fiber can vary from 20% to 70%, and the color of the particle can be matched according to the customer's requirements.

Advantages of long glass fiber reinforced PP

Why do some areas use long glass fiber reinforced PP instead of short glass fiber reinforced PP?

Long glass fiber has the following advantages over short fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites:

- Longer fiber length, which obviously improves the mechanical properties of the products.

- High specific stiffness and strength, good impact resistance, especially suitable for automotive parts applications.

- Improved creep resistance, good dimensional stability, and high precision of part molding.

- Excellent fatigue resistance.

- Better stability in high temperature and humid environment.

- Fibers can move relatively in the molding mold during the molding process, with little fiber damage.

Better base rigidity

Better mechanical properties

Lower creep

Better impact resistance

Less anisotropic shrinkage of each item

Where is long glass fiber reinforced PP often used?


Automotive industry
Front-end modules, door modules, shift mechanisms, electronic gas pedals, dashboard skeletons, cooling fans and frames, battery brackets, bumper brackets, underbody guards, sunroof frames, etc., are used to replace reinforced PA or metal materials. The application of this material in these fields has been greatly promoted in Europe, and the current consumption is 20,000T/Y.

Home appliance industry
Washing machine drum, washing machine triangle bracket, a brush machine drum, air conditioning fan, etc., used to replace short glass fiber reinforced PA, APS or metal materials.

Communication, electronics, electrical industry
High-precision connectors, ignition components, coil shafts, relay bases, microwave transformer coil holders/frames, electrical connectors, solenoid valve packages, scanner components, etc. for the communication and electronics industries.

Others
Power tool housing, water pump or water meter housing, impeller, bicycle skeleton, skis, ground locomotive pedals, military/civilian safety helmets, safety shoe wrapper toe, etc. for replacing short glass fiber reinforced PA, PPO, etc.

Glass fiber has many advantages such as high strength and light weight, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, good electrical insulation performance, etc. It is one of the commonly used raw materials for composite materials. At the same time, China is also the world's largest producer of glass fiber.

Xiamen LFT composite plastics Co., Ltd. has been focusing on modified engineering plastics for 20 years. New materials, new technology, and every material with heart. We can customize materials according to customer needs, more than 20 years of technical experience, is a trusted manufacturer of modified materials. Welcome to contact us, we can provide you with customized solutions, free quotation!