Commercial Information
Today, fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP/GRP) composites are used in thousands of structural applications.
Such as in aerospace, automotive parts, sports and recreation equipment, boats and office products and machines to name but a few.
What is a fibreglass Reinforced Plastic Composite ?
A fibreglass reinforced plastic composite is a material system consisting of glass fibre reinforcement, plastic resin and additives, combined and processed to meet specific functional performance and manufacturing criteria for a finished product or part. By selecting the right combination of resin and glass fibres, the designer can create a product or part that meets the most demanding of product specifications. Recent advancement in glass fibre technology allow GRP to compete favourably on a total cost / performance basis with traditional materials like sheet metal.
Given the excellent cost / performance characteristics of GRP composites, the variety of products being efficiently, effectively and economically produced with this material system grow exponentially each year. GRP can adapt to all conditions and should therefore be considered when finished parts or products require :-
- High strength
- Light weight
- Dimensional stability
- Corrosion resistance
- Lower tooling costs
- Design Flexibility
- Excellent Electrical resistance
- Different colours and surface finishes
GRP as an option to metals.
GRP has been proven to have more specific strength than most metals in comparable applications. Although exact comparisons depend on the plastic selected as the base material, flexural strength (the amount of bending it withstands before breaking), compressive strength (the amount of weight it will hold before breaking) and impact strength match and, in many cases, exceed those of comparable metals. Its thermal conductivity - the heat transferred by FRP - is very low, particularly compared to metals. Its electrical conductivity is very low. And with proper selection of plastic resins, fibreglass resists virtually all forms of chemical and environmental corrosion.
GRP as an option to Non-reinforced plastic.
No matter what the performance requirement, GRP is usually better than non-reinforced plastics for : flexural strength, tensile strength, compressive strength, impact strength, thermal conductivity, insulation against electric current, expansion under heat and resistance to chemical and environmental attack