Fiberglass is a kind of inorganic non-metallic material with excellent performance. It has a wide variety of advantages, such as good insulation, strong heat resistance, good corrosion resistance and high mechanical strength, but its disadvantages are brittle and poor wear resistance. It is made of pyrophyllite, quartz sand, limestone, dolomite, boehmite and boehmite by high-temperature melting, wire drawing, yarn winding, cloth weaving and other processes. The diameter of its monofilament is several microns to more than 20 microns, equivalent to 1/20-1/5 of a hair. Each bundle of fiber precursor is composed of hundreds or even thousands of monofilaments. Glass fiber is usually used as reinforcement materials in composite materials, electrical insulation materials, thermal insulation materials, circuit boards and other fields of the national economy.
On October 27, 2017, the list of carcinogens published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization was preliminarily collated for reference. Fibers for special purposes, such as E glass and “475″ glass fiber, were included in the list of Category 2B carcinogens, and continuous glass fibers were included in the list of Category 3 carcinogens.
According to the shape and length, glass fiber can be divided into continuous fiber, fixed length fiber and glass wool; According to glass composition, it can be divided into alkali free, chemical resistant, high alkali, medium alkali, high strength, high elastic modulus and alkali resistant (alkali resistant) glass fibers.
The main raw materials for the production of glass fiber are: quartz sand, alumina and pyrophyllite, limestone, dolomite, boric acid, soda ash, mirabilite, fluorite, etc. Production methods can be roughly divided into two categories: one is to directly make molten glass into fibers; One is to make the molten glass into a glass ball or rod with a diameter of 20mm, and then heat and remelt it in various ways to make it into a glass ball or rod with a diameter of 3-80 μ M of very fine fibers. The infinitely long fiber drawn by mechanical drawing method through platinum alloy plate is called continuous glass fiber, which is generally called long fiber. The discontinuous fiber made by roller or air flow is called fixed length glass fiber, or short fiber.
Glass fiber can be divided into different grades according to its composition, nature and use. According to the standard level, Class E glass fiber is the most widely used electrical insulating material; Class S is a special fiber.
The data shows that the concentration of China’s glass fiber industry is relatively high as a whole, with Jushi accounting for 34%, followed by Taishan Glass Fiber and Chongqing International accounting for 17% respectively. Shandong Fiberglass, Sichuan Weibo, Jiangsu Changhai, Chongqing Sanlei, Henan Guangyuan and Xingtai Jinniu accounted for a small proportion, respectively 9%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 2% and 1%.
There are two production processes of glass fiber: twice forming crucible wire drawing method and once forming tank furnace wire drawing method.
The crucible wire drawing process has many processes. First, the glass raw materials are melted into glass balls at high temperature, then the glass balls are melted again, and the high-speed wire drawing is made into glass fiber strands. This process has many disadvantages, such as high energy consumption, unstable molding process and low labor productivity, and is basically eliminated by large glass fiber manufacturers.
The tank furnace wiredrawing method is used to melt pyrophyllite and other raw materials into glass solution in the furnace. After bubbles are removed, they are transported to the porous drain plate through the channel and are drawn into glass fiber precursor at high speed. The kiln can connect hundreds of leak plates through multiple channels for simultaneous production. This process is simple in process, energy saving and consumption reducing, stable in forming, efficient and high-yield, which is convenient for large-scale full-automatic production and has become the international mainstream production process. The glass fiber produced by this process accounts for more than 90% of the global output.
According to the Analysis Report on the Status Quo and Development Prospects of the Fiberglass Market from 2022 to 2026 released by Hangzhou Zhongjing Zhisheng Market Research Co., Ltd., on the basis of the continued spread of the COVID-19 and the continued deterioration of the international trade situation, the glass fiber and products industry can achieve such good results, on the one hand, thanks to China’s great success in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the timely launch of the domestic demand market, On the other hand, thanks to the continuous implementation of glass fiber yarn production capacity regulation in the industry, there are fewer new projects and they have been delayed. The existing production lines have started cold repair in a timely manner and delayed production. With the rapid growth of demand in the downstream industries and wind power and other market segments, various types of glass fiber yarn and manufactured products have achieved multiple rounds of price hikes since the third quarter, and the prices of some glass fiber yarn products have reached or close to the best level in history, The overall profit level of the industry has improved significantly.
Glass fiber was invented in 1938 by an American company; During the Second World War in the 1940s, glass fiber reinforced composites were first used in military industry (tank parts, aircraft cabin, weapon shells, bulletproof vests, etc.); Later, with the continuous improvement of material performance, the decline of production cost and the development of downstream composite material technology, the application of glass fiber has been expanded to the civil field. Its downstream applications cover the fields of architecture, rail transit, petrochemical, automobile manufacturing, aerospace, wind power generation, electrical appliances, environmental engineering, marine engineering, etc., becoming a new generation of composite materials to replace traditional materials such as steel, wood, stone, etc, It is a national strategic emerging industry, which is of great significance to national economic development, transformation and upgrading.
Post time: Nov-25-2022