| General description: Glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) is a composite fibre-reinforced polymer made from a synthetic material such as polyester resin, epoxy resin, or polyamide and glass fibres. GRP is also known as fibre glass. Often, plastics reinforced with short and long fibres are used to create injection-moulded and die cast parts. Since GRP is easy to shape and leaves room for the design ideas. Plastics reinforced with short fibres usually have a certain degree of isotropic behaviour, since the short fibres are randomly distributed. Endless fibre-reinforced plastics have defined material properties depending on the structure of the fibres. Increasingly, they are used in lightweight construction. The construction profiles have a good flexural strength and combine the advantages of corrosion-resistant, thermally and electrically insulating plastics with modern fibre composites and their mechanical strength in the same range as that of metals. They are produced by means of a continous casting method similar to aluminium. Depending on the profile, the structure consists of glass fibre mats for transverse reinforcement. Longitudinal forces are absorbed by means of rovings (unidirectional glass fibre) in the core of the profiles. As standard, isophtalic acid polyesters are used as the matrix. Characteristics and properties: - Extremely high mechanical strength with low specific weight
- Longitudinal tensile strength in the range of metallic materials
- High impact resistance, even at low temperatures
- Exceptionally high dimensional stability
- Good shape recovery without lasting deformation
- Good dielectric properties
- Good thermal insulation properties
- Very low coefficient of thermal expansion
- High dimensional stability
- Good resistance to corrosion and moisture
- Good weather resistance and chemicals
- Flame-retardant
- Good adhesion of glues and paints
- Good price/performance ratio
Information provided by Angst + Pfister |
