Properties of glass fabric

Woven fiber glass fabrics offer the widest range and the best control over thickness, weight and strength of all forms of fiberglass textiles. This offers the materials engineer a wide choice of controlled fabric properties to satisfy design needs and objectives. In general, woven glass fabrics have the following properties:

High Tensile Strength:
Glass is one of the strongest textile fibers, having greater specific tensile strength than steel wire of the same diameter, at a lower weight.

Dimensional Stability:
Low elongation under load, generally 3% or less. Glass fibers produce fabrics with excellent dimensional stability under various types of conditions.

High Heat Resistance:
Glass fabrics have excellent heat resistance at relatively low cost. They retain approximately 50% of room temperature tensile strength at 700°F (371°C); approximately 25% at 900°F (482°C); with a softening point of 1555°F (846°C) and a melting point of 2075° F (1121 °C).

Fire Resistance:
Composed of inorganic materials, glass fabrics are noncombustible, a natural choice where flammability is of concern.

Good Thermal Conductivity:
The rapid heat dissipation of glass fabrics is particularly important in electrical insulation applications.

Good Chemical Resistance:
Like glass itself, fiber glass fabrics are highly resistant to attack by most chemicals.

Outstanding Electrical Properties:
Glass fabrics withstand high temperature and have low moisture regain. Along with its high dielectric strength and low dielectric constant, glass is of major importance and usefulness in the electrical industry.

Durability:
Being inert, glass fabrics are unaffected by sunlight, fungus or bacteria.

Economical:
Glass fabrics are lower in cost than many other fabrics for similar applications.