JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #108 - October 2016 - 17

Present and future of basalt fibre technology, manufacturing and market development
cess equipment are used for
BCF industrial production:
feeder units and modular production lines, both producing
high-quality continuous fibre.
In recent years, several BCF
production facilities were established in Russia by companies such as Kamenny
Vek, LLC and Technobasalt.
In Austria, a BCF production plant was created several years ago. The Austrian
company Asamer acquired
a BCF manufacturing shop
and its equipment from the
Teplozvukoizoliatsia
plant
near Kiev. Process and technical work was conducted
by Ukrainian experts and lubricant compounds (sizing)
were managed by the Austrian
team. Then BCF production
was moved to Austria.
Most of the world's
BCF (86%) is produced
in Chinese factories
The first BCF production facilities established in PRC used
second- and third-generation
technologies and process equipment developed by Ukrainian
specialists. These technologies
and equipment were also patented in China [5, 6].

From 1999 to 2015, experts from Basalt Fibre and
Composite Materials (Ukraine)
and BFM TD (PRC) created a
fourth generation of modular
processing equipment and new
feeder units to produce BCF.
The main feature of fourth-generation BCF equipment is
its low energy consumption.
Currently, modular and feeder
process lines can be used to create BCF plants. All these technologies and equipment are
patented [7, 8, 9].
With the technology developed
to create fourth-generation process equipment, the cost of BCF
industrial production reached a
level equal or below the cost of
E-glass fibre production.
Currently, the creation of BCF
production facilities is more
cost-effective than that of fibre
-glass.
The worldwide growth of glass
fibre production and consumption from 4.5 million to 6 million tons a year in recent years
will also lead to an increase in
BCF production.
BCF and BCF materials find
their fields of application and
sales markets where E-glass fi-

Tab. 2: Specification of process line TE BCF 2500-3000 (fourth generation)

Basic specifications

Measurement unit

TE BCF 2500

The line manufacturer

tones/year

2500 - 3000

Number of unit for primary BCF
production

pcs.

The number of dies in
the bushing

pcs.

400

Gas flow rate

m3/h

110

Gas flow rate to produce
1 ton of BCF

m3/ton

350

Power consumption (220/380,
50Hz)

kVA

260

Electricity consumption
to produce 1 ton of BCF

kWh

800 - 850

Mode of operation,
continuous, year-round

days/year

350

bres or expensive carbon fibres
cannot be used due to a number
of reasons.
The low cost of BCF production can reduce the selling
price, which can help increase
the production and sales of
BCF and BCF materials.
Use of BCF and BCF materials, sales of BCF products
and manufacturing plants
BCF is the main material used
to manufacture a wide range of
materials and products for major
industries such as:
- Construction and road construction (basalt-plastic rebar,
profiles, reinforcing fibres/
chopped fibres for concrete
and asphalt concrete, reinforcing nets for construction and
roads, geotextiles, composite
products);
- Bridge construction (bridge
footings and bearing spans);
- Offshore platforms for oil and
gas production (large-diameter and length solid supports);
- Power engineering and cable
industry (construction of power transmission lines, fitting
of concrete poles, bases, loops
and tension cables on transmission lines, supporting cores
and suspension of transmission line wires, construction
insulating materials, protective
and insulating housings for
power and fibre optic cables);
- Public utilities (pipes for heat
supply, water supply, sewers
and manholes, lighting poles,
etc.);
- Chemical and oil industries
(chemically-resistant pipes,
pipes for oil & gas pipelines,
tanks, rods for oil pumping
units, chemical and heatresistant filters for liquid and
gaseous waste);
- Automotive industry (composite materials, bumper and
dashboard structures, body
No108 October 2016 /

structures, suspensions, nonwoven fabrics for muflers, fibres for brake pads and clutch
plates, tyre cord);
- Engineering, aviation and
shipbuilding (composite materials and constructions, power profiles, coverings, fairings,
thermal and acoustic insulation materials).
The construction and road
construction industries are the
broadest market for BCF [10, 11].
Basalt composite reinforcement (BCR) is the new application field of BCF. At present,
the production of composite
reinforcements is a thriving industry. There are 60 composite
reinforcement
manufacturers
in PRC, and already 15 in the
Russian Federation and Ukraine.
However, the most promising
area is the creation of plants to
process BCF into reinforcements,
as was done by Technobasalt.
Recommendations and technical conditions have been developed and state standards for
BCR application in construction
and road construction have been
adopted in PRC (2007), Ukraine
(DSTU, 2013) and Russia
(GOST, 2014) [12, 13]. The EU
and the United States are currently working on similar standards [14, 15]. The availability of
standards opens considerable opportunities for BCF application
as a replacement for traditional
steel reinforcements. The world
market for steel reinforcements is
estimated at 165 billion dollars a
year. Even a partial replacement
of steel reinforcements with BCR
would increase BCF production
volume dozens of times.
The creation of BCF production
facilities and BCF composite
materials is very important for a

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #108 - October 2016