Encyclopedia of Glass Science, Technology, History, and Culture. Группа авторов
is E‐CR glass and its performance in strongly acidic environments. This adequacy has resulted in the specification of E‐CR glass as a requirement in applications such as waste water pipe systems, desulfurization towers in power plants, and filtration bags in power plant or cement productions (Figure 6a).
Figure 5 Global GRP composite market shares in America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific regions.
Source: Fiber glass market study, PPG, 2014.
Specialized fibers, including redesigned and more manufacturing friendly versions of S‐glass, R‐glass, and D‐glass for high‐strength, high‐modulus, and premium electrical properties, respectively, continue to be in demand where limits are being pushed to the extreme for traditional E‐glass. Some examples include aerospace, driven by weight and fuel economies; wind energy, driven by the need for increased stiffness at a fair value cost in order to achieve lower energy costs; transportation, driven by fuel economy and energy management in crashes; better electrical properties, driven by increased bandwidth, faster computing speeds, and miniaturization; and energy storage, driven by higher strength for hydrogen storage tanks and other components. A specific example of the role of improved glass design is related to the design of ultra‐long wind‐turbine blade. Newly designed high modulus and low‐density glass fibers will likely replace E‐glass fibers (Figure 6b) in the future, helping to drive the unit cost of electricity generation to a more competitive level.
Figure 6 Improvement in fiber properties through compositional changes. (a) Effects of boron reduction on acid stress corrosion performance as shown by a comparison of boron‐free ECR and E‐glass fibers [7]. (b) Improvement of composite unidirectional tensile modulus with newly designed R‐glass fibers for various potential applications for both thermoplastic and thermoset composites [4] (σapp – applied tensile stress on rod samples, σUTS – ultimate tensile strength of as‐received rod samples, unidirectional nonwoven fabric reinforcement – UD composite panel, long fiber thermoplastics – LFT).
5 Perspectives
It is expected that E‐glass and its variants will continue to be the predominant form of glass fiber for most reinforcements markets in the near term. However, as larger volume applications grow with increased performance needs, the glass fiber industry will face challenges to develop manufacturing technology platforms capable of making these products at costs acceptable to the markets. Innovation is needed in both glass chemistry and manufacturing technology to grow specialty fiber businesses that usually provide higher profitability than traditional glass fiber markets. Some examples of manufacturing technologies could include new melting furnace designs, new melting techniques, new fining methods for higher temperatures, and new refractory materials for high‐temperature operations. In terms of fiber‐glass chemistry, an in‐depth fundamental understanding of glass structure–property relationships will aid glass optimization for performance and manufacturing scalability. Most ongoing research, including molecular dynamic modeling, focuses on local structure of both network work formers (primarily Si, B, and conditionally Al) and network modifiers (primarily alkali, alkaline earth, and rare earth).
References
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2 2 ASTM D578/D578M‐05 (2011). Standard Specification for Glass Fiber Strands. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM International www.astm.org.
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5 5 Longobardo, A.V. (2009). Glass fibers for printed circuit boards. In: Fiberglass and Glass Technology, Energy‐Friendly Compositions and Applications (eds. F.T. Wallenberger and P.A. Bingham), 175–196. New York: Springer.
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7 7 Li, H., Gu, P., Watson, J., and Meng, J. (2013). Acid corrosion and mechanism of E‐glass fibers: boron factor. J. Mater. Sci. 48: 3075–3087.
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11 11 Quintas, A., Charpentier, T., Majerus, O. et al. (2007). NMR study of a rare‐earth aluminoborosilicate glass with varying CaO‐to‐Na2O ratio. Appl. Magn. Reson. 32: 613–634.
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15 15 Conradt, R. (2009). Thermodynamics of glass melting process. In: Fiberglass and Glass Technology, Energy‐Friendly Compositions and Applications (eds. F.T. Wallenberger and P.A. Bingham), 358–412. New York: Springer.
16 16 Beerkens, R.G.C., Laimbock, P., Faber, A.J., and Kobayashi, S. (1998). Interaction between furnace atmosphere and sulfate fined glass melts, 347–354. San Francisco, US: Proc. Inter. Cong. Glass XVIII.
17 17 Goldman, D. S. (1985). REDOX and sulfur solubility in glass melts. International Commission on Glass: Gas Bubbles in Glass, Charleroi, Belgium, pp. 74–91.
18 18 Agarwal, B.D. and Broutman, L.J. (1990). Analysis and Performance of Fiber Composites. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
19 19 Thomason, J.L. (2012). Glass Fibre Sizings: A Review of the Scientific Literature. James L Thomason: Charleston.
Note
1 Reviewers: R. Conradt, RWTH University of Aachen, Aachen, GermanyJ. Thomason, The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
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