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Concept
Glass fiber
Summary
Glass fiber (or glass fibre) is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.
Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling. In 1893, Edward Drummond Libbey exhibited a dress at the World's Columbian Exposition incorporating glass fibers with the diameter and texture of silk fibers. Glass fibers can also occur naturally, as Pele's hair.
Glass wool, which is one product called "fiberglass" today, was invented some time between 1932 and 1933 by Games Slayter of Owens-Illinois, as a material to be used as thermal building insulation. It is marketed under the trade name Fiberglas, which has become a genericized trademark. Glass fiber, when used as a thermal insulating material, is specially manufactured with a bonding agent to trap many small air cells, resulting in the characteristically air-filled low-density "glass wool" family of products.
Glass fiber has roughly comparable mechanical properties to other fibers such as polymers and carbon fiber. Although not as rigid as carbon fiber, it is much cheaper and significantly less brittle when used in composites. Glass fiber reinforced composites are used in marine industry and piping industries because of good environmental resistance, better damage tolerance for impact loading, high specific strength and stiffness.
Glass fiber is formed when thin strands of silica-based or other formulation glass are extruded into many fibers with small diameters suitable for textile processing. The technique of heating and drawing glass into fine fibers has been known for millennia, and was practiced in Egypt and Venice. Before the recent use of these fibers for textile applications, all glass fiber had been manufactured as staple (that is, clusters of short lengths of fiber).
The modern method for producing glass wool is the invention of Games Slayter working at the Owens-Illinois Glass Company (Toledo, Ohio).
Official source
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