JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #42 - July/August 2008 - 62

KNOW-HOW Raw Materials Corrosion resistance of High-Performance Glass fibres While introducing its new generation of High-Performance Reinforcements(1), OCV Reinforcements has conducted various types of tests to develop representative corrosion resistance data in a variety of corrosive environments and to compare this new glass to the already well-known Advantex® E-CR glass. More information (1) CLAUDE RENAUD OCV REINFORCEMENTS – INNOVATIONS & APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT S ince glass fibres were first produced in the late 1930’s, Owens Corning has been pioneering the development of new markets and new applications of glass-fibre-reinforced composites. To serve these markets, the company has relentlessly developed innovative solutions, new glass-fibre sizings and new glass compositions. Since E-glass was first produced in 1938, Owens Corning has developed S-2 Glass®(2) (1968), ECRGLAS®, the first boron-free E-CR glass for corrosion-resistant applications (1980), and Advantex® glass, which has the particularity of being both an Eglass and an E-CR glass (1997). Advantex® has become OCV Reinforcements’ benchmark glass composition for most applications, including those which require corrosion resistance. In early 2007, after an initial pilot production phase, Owens Corning launched the high-volume production of high-performance reinforcements to provide consistent products at affordable prices. High Performance Reinforcements are made from a patent-pending glass produced and marketed by OCV-Reinforcements under the trade names of WindStrand™, XStrand™, ShieldStrand™ and FliteStrand™ ; products are also distributed in Europe, North-Africa & Middle-East by 3B, The Fibreglass Company, under the HiPer-tex™ trade name. (2) (S-2 Glass(R) is a registered trademark of Advanced Glassfiber Yarn, LLC High mechanical properties Most of the above applications require high strength and high modulus reinforcements and higher dynamic fatigue performance than those obtained with traditional E-glass reinforcements. The short-term static and long-term dynamic performance of laminates made with High-Performance Glass reinforcements have been addressed in earlier papers [1, 2, 3]. The tensile and in-plane shear properties have been measured using various types of reinforcements. Typical results obtained from laminates produced by vacuum-assisted resin infusion with MGS L135i epoxy resin are given in table 1. The tensile strengths of laminates reinforced with High-Performance Glass may be as much as 35% higher than those of corresponding laminates reinforced with Advantex® glass, whilst stiffness increases have been recorded from 8 to 19% depending on laminate type and fibre orientations. On the other hand, the ± 45° Tab.1: Typical static properties of infusion-moulded laminates [1] Laminate type Property Fibre content (% wt) Standard Advantex® High perfor- Change glass mance glass (%) 78.5 78.6 0% 132.6 14.2 673 27.1 74.6 ISO 527-5 990 40 15.1 135.4 15.3 885 32.2 74.4 1317 43.1 22.1 2% 8% 32% 19% 0% 33% 8% 46% A new generation of high-performance reinforcements High-Performance Glass reinforcements are made from a new patent-pending glass formulation which not only is a boron-free glass just like Advantex® glass and other E-CR glass reinforcements, but is designed specifically to offer superior mechanical properties (strength, strain, and modulus) and significantly higher thermal and corrosion resistance properties than all traditional types of E-glass. This High-Performance Glass composition is used to produce various types of products for different applications: WindStrand™ products for wind energy, XStrand™ products for filament winding and pressure vessels, FliteStrand™ products for aviation, and ShieldStrand™ products for armour and ballistic protection. Each of these product lines has its own specific features and properties to be taken into consideration for various processing and mechanical performance requirements. [0,90]4 lay-up ±45° Shear-tensile Str.(MPa) ±45° Shear-tensile Modulus (GPa) 0-90 Tensile strength (MPa) 0-90 Tensile modulus (GPa) Fibre content (% wt) ISO 14129 ISO 527-5 CDM 1200.50 ( UD fabric) Tensile strenght (MPa) Tensile Modulus (GPa) Strain energy (J/cm3) JEC Composites Magazine / No42 July-August 2008
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #42 - July/August 2008

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