Fiberglass

This article is about the type of composite material. For the thermal insulation material sometimes called fibreglass, see glass wool. For the glass fiber itself, also sometimes called fiberglass, see glass fiber.

Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth. The plastic matrix may be a thermoset polymer matrix—most often based on thermosetting polymers such as epoxy, polyester resin, or vinyl ester resin—or a thermoplastic.

Cheaper and more flexible than carbon fiber, it is stronger than many metals by weight, non-magnetic, non-conductive, transparent to electromagnetic radiation, can be molded into complex shapes, and is chemically inert under many circumstances. Applications include aircraft, boats, automobiles, bath tubs and enclosures, swimming pools, hot tubs, septic tanks, water tanks, roofing, pipes, cladding, orthopedic casts, surfboards, and external door skins.

Other common names for fiberglass are glass-reinforced plastic (GRP),[1] glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP)[2] or GFK (from German: Glasfaserverstärkter Kunststoff). Because glass fiber itself is sometimes referred to as "fiberglass", the composite is also called fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP). This article uses "fiberglass" to refer to the complete fiber-reinforced composite material, rather than only to the glass fiber within it.

  1. ^ Mayer, Rayner M. (1993). Design with reinforced plastics. Springer. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-85072-294-9.
  2. ^ Nawy, Edward G. (2001). Fundamentals of high-performance concrete (2 ed.). John Wiley and Sons. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-471-38555-4.