Covai Seenu & Company

Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) is a modern engineering material which is highly versatile in nature. It is commonly used in manufacturing water tanks, cooling tower bodies, washing machine bodies, windmill blades, aircraft parts, spacecraft parts, automobile parts, roofing sheets and many more.

Raw Materials:

Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic Composites are made up of Glass fiber, which is one of the most common reinforcing elements used in commercial and industrial composites. It is known for its properties such as high strength, flexibility, durability, stability, light-weight, and resistance to heat, temperature, and moisture.

The basic raw materials for fiberglass products are a variety of natural minerals and manufactured chemicals. The major ingredients used in the fabrication process are silica sand, limestone, and soda ash. Silica sand is used as the glass former, and soda ash and limestone help primarily to lower the melting temperature. Other ingredients are used to improve certain properties, such as borax is used to enhance chemical resistance. Waste glass, also called cullet, is also used as a raw material. The raw materials must be carefully weighed in exact quantities and thoroughly mixed together (called batching) before being melted into glass.

 

The Manufacturing Process:

• Melting

Once the batch is prepared, it is fed into a furnace for melting. The furnace may be heated by electricity, fossil fuel, or a combination of the two. The temperature must be precisely controlled to maintain a smooth, steady flow of glass. The molten glass must be kept at a higher temperature (about 2500°F [1371°C]) than other types of glass in order to be formed into the fiber. Once the glass becomes molten, it is transferred to the forming equipment via a channel (forehearth) located at the end of the furnace.

• Forming into fibers

Several different processes are used to form fibers, depending on the type of fiber. Textile fibers may be formed from molten glass directly from the furnace, or the molten glass may be fed first to a machine that forms glass marbles of about 0.62 inch (1.6 cm) in diameter. These marbles allow the glass to be inspected visually for impurities. In both the direct melt and marble melt process, the glass or glass marbles are fed through electrically heated bushings (also called spinnerets). The bushing is made of platinum or metal alloy, with anywhere from 200 to 3,000 very fine orifices. The molten glass passes through the orifices and comes out as fine filaments.