Glass cloth

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Hot-air balloon: The lower portion is protected from heat by glass cloth. 330-PSA-26-61 (USN 1052544) (21453676362).jpg
Hot-air balloon: The lower portion is protected from heat by glass cloth.

Glass cloth is a textile material woven from glass fiber yarn.

Contents

Home and garden

Glass cloth was originally developed to be used in greenhouse paneling, allowing sunlight's ultraviolet rays to be filtered out, while still allowing visible light through to plants.

Glass cloth is also a term for a type of tea towel suited for polishing glass. The cloth is usually woven with the plain weave, and may be patterned in various ways, though checked cloths are the most common. The original cloth was made from linen, but a large quantity is made with cotton warp and tow weft, and in some cases they are composed entirely of cotton. Short fibres of the cheaper kind are easily detached from the cloth. [1]

In the Southern Plains during the Dust Bowl, states' health officials recommended attaching translucent glass cloth to the inside frames of windows to help in keeping the dust out of buildings, although people also used paperboard, canvas or blankets. Eyewitness accounts indicate they were not completely successful. [2]

Use in technology

Due to properties of glass such as heat resistance and an inability to ignite, glass has been used to create fire barriers in hazardous environments such as inside of racecars. Its poor flexibility, and its being a source of skin irritation, made the fibers inadequate for apparel uses.

Its bi-directional strength make glass cloth useful for some fiberglass reinforced plastics. [3] For example, the Rutan VariEze homebuilt aircraft uses a moldless glass cloth - epoxy composite structure and skin. Glass cloth is commonly used as the reinforcing lattice for pre-pregs. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Textile</span> Various fiber-based materials

Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the only manufacturing method, and many other methods were later developed to form textile structures based on their intended use. Knitting and non-woven are other popular types of fabric manufacturing. In the contemporary world, textiles satisfy the material needs for versatile applications, from simple daily clothing to bulletproof jackets, spacesuits, and doctor's gowns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Printed circuit board</span> Board to support and connect electronic components

A printed circuit board (PCB), also called printed wiring board (PWB), is a medium used to connect or "wire" components to one another in a circuit. It takes the form of a laminated sandwich structure of conductive and insulating layers: each of the conductive layers is designed with a pattern of traces, planes and other features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive substrate. Electrical components may be fixed to conductive pads on the outer layers in the shape designed to accept the component's terminals, generally by means of soldering, to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. Another manufacturing process adds vias, plated-through holes that allow interconnections between layers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiber</span> Natural or synthetic substance made of long, thin filaments

Fiber or fibre is a natural or artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The strongest engineering materials often incorporate fibers, for example carbon fiber and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon fibers</span> Material fibers about 5–10 μm in diameter composed of carbon

Carbon fibers or carbon fibres are fibers about 5 to 10 micrometers (0.00020–0.00039 in) in diameter and composed mostly of carbon atoms. Carbon fibers have several advantages: high stiffness, high tensile strength, high strength to weight ratio, high chemical resistance, high-temperature tolerance, and low thermal expansion. These properties have made carbon fiber very popular in aerospace, civil engineering, military, motorsports, and other competition sports. However, they are relatively expensive compared to similar fibers, such as glass fiber, basalt fibers, or plastic fibers.

Fiberglass or fibreglass 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thermosetting polymer</span> Polymer obtained by irreversibly hardening (curing) a resin

In materials science, a thermosetting polymer, often called a thermoset, is a polymer that is obtained by irreversibly hardening ("curing") a soft solid or viscous liquid prepolymer (resin). Curing is induced by heat or suitable radiation and may be promoted by high pressure or mixing with a catalyst. Heat is not necessarily applied externally, and is often generated by the reaction of the resin with a curing agent. Curing results in chemical reactions that create extensive cross-linking between polymer chains to produce an infusible and insoluble polymer network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microfiber</span> Synthetic fiber

Microfiber is synthetic fiber finer than one denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GLARE</span>

Glare is a fiber metal laminate (FML) composed of several very thin layers of metal interspersed with layers of S-2 glass-fiber pre-preg, bonded together with a matrix such as epoxy. The uni-directional pre-preg layers may be aligned in different directions to suit predicted stress conditions.

Fibre-reinforced plastic is a composite material made of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. The fibres are usually glass, carbon, aramid, or basalt. Rarely, other fibres such as paper, wood, boron, or asbestos have been used. The polymer is usually an epoxy, vinyl ester, or polyester thermosetting plastic, though phenol formaldehyde resins are still in use.

Pre-preg is a composite material made from "pre-impregnated" fibers and a partially cured polymer matrix, such as epoxy or phenolic resin, or even thermoplastic mixed with liquid rubbers or resins. The fibers often take the form of a weave and the matrix is used to bond them together and to other components during manufacture. The thermoset matrix is only partially cured to allow easy handling; this B-Stage material requires cold storage to prevent complete curing. B-Stage pre-preg is always stored in cooled areas since heat accelerates complete polymerization. Hence, composite structures built of pre-pregs will mostly require an oven or autoclave to cure. The main idea behind a pre-preg material is the use of anisotropic mechanical properties along the fibers, while the polymer matrix provides filling properties, keeping the fibers in a single system.

Micarta is a brand name for composites of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or other fabric in a thermosetting plastic. It was originally used in electrical and decorative applications. Micarta was developed by George Westinghouse at least as early as 1910 using phenolic resins invented by Leo Baekeland. These resins were used to impregnate paper and cotton fabric which were cured under pressure and high temperature to produce laminates. In later years this manufacturing method included the use of fiberglass fabric, and other resin types were also used. Today Micarta high-pressure industrial laminates are produced with a wide variety of resins and fibers. The term has been used generically for most resin impregnated fiber compounds. Common uses of modern high-pressure laminates include electrical insulators, printed circuit board substrates, and knife handles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrim (material)</span> Woven material used in theatre and construction

A scrim is a woven material, either finely woven lightweight fabric widely used in theatre, or a heavy, coarse woven material used for reinforcement in both building and canvas making.

Pultrusion is a continuous process for manufacture of fibre-reinforced plastics with constant cross-section. The term is a portmanteau word, combining "pull" and "extrusion". As opposed to extrusion, which pushes the material, pultrusion pulls the material.

The manufacture of textiles is one of the oldest of human technologies. To make textiles, the first requirement is a source of fiber from which a yarn can be made, primarily by spinning. The yarn is processed by knitting or weaving, which turns yarn into cloth. The machine used for weaving is the loom. For decoration, the process of colouring yarn or the finished material is dyeing. For more information of the various steps, see textile manufacturing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finishing (textiles)</span> Manufacturing process

In textile manufacturing, finishing refers to the processes that convert the woven or knitted cloth into a usable material and more specifically to any process performed after dyeing the yarn or fabric to improve the look, performance, or "hand" (feel) of the finish textile or clothing. The precise meaning depends on context.

Many materials have been used to make garments throughout history. Grasses, furs and much more complex and exotic materials have been used. Cultures like the Arctic Circle, make their wardrobes out of prepared and decorated furs and skins.[1] Different cultures have added cloth to leather and skins as a way to replace real leather. A wide range of fibers, including natural, cellulose, and synthetic fibers, can be used to weave or knit cloth.

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers, carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic, also known as carbon fiber, carbon composite, or just carbon, are extremely strong and light fiber-reinforced plastics that contain carbon fibers. CFRPs can be expensive to produce, but are commonly used wherever high strength-to-weight ratio and stiffness (rigidity) are required, such as aerospace, superstructures of ships, automotive, civil engineering, sports equipment, and an increasing number of consumer and technical applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Z-pinning</span>

Z-pinning is a technique to insert reinforcing fibres along the Z-direction of continuous fibre-reinforced plastics. Z-pins can be made of metal or precured unidirectional composite fibres. It is designed for use within pre-preg technology; there is extensive experimental evidence that Z-pinning dramatically improves the resistance of the composite structure to delamination. The figure on the right shows a Z-pin inserted in between the fibres of the material. The pin spreads the fibres and creates an oval shaped gap that is filled with resin. The Z-pin prevents the composite from delamination. When a load is applied the cracks will typically form along the line of the opening.

Three-dimensional composites use fiber preforms constructed from yarns or tows arranged into complex three-dimensional structures. These can be created from a 3D weaving process, a 3D knitting process, a 3D braiding process, or a 3D lay of short fibers. A resin is applied to the 3D preform to create the composite material. Three-dimensional composites are used in highly engineered and highly technical applications in order to achieve complex mechanical properties. Three-dimensional composites are engineered to react to stresses and strains in ways that are not possible with traditional composite materials composed of single direction tows, or 2D woven composites, sandwich composites or stacked laminate materials.

G-10 or garolite is a high-pressure fiberglass laminate, a type of composite material. It is created by stacking multiple layers of glass cloth, soaked in epoxy resin, then compressing the resulting material under heat until the epoxy cures. It is manufactured in flat sheets, most often a few millimeters thick.

References

  1. Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Glass cloth". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 112.
  2. Dust Bowl, The Southern Plains in the 1930s... by Donald Worster. Oxford University Press.
  3. Shindo, Y (2001). "Double Cantilever Beam Measurement and Finite Element Analysis of Cryogenic Mode I Interlaminar Fracture Toughness of Glass-Cloth/Epoxy Laminates". Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology. 123 (2): 191–197. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.1064.8944 . doi:10.1115/1.1345527.
  4. Rusnákov, S (2018). Overview of production of pre-preg, prototype and testing. XXIII International Conference on Manufacturing (Manufacturing 2018). Vol. 448. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/448/1/012069 .