Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics
The aerospace, automotive, marine, construction, agricultural, transportation and sporting good industries all use fiberglass reinforced plastic shapes and products in both industrial and commercial settings. Boats, go-carts, race cars and busses use FRP on their exteriors, while large medical equipment like MRI and CT scanning machines use it for cosmetic panels. Agricultural equipment, kiosks and building materials for swimming pools, homes and other buildings also use fiberglass reinforced plastic. In industrial applications, FRP is manufactured into a few basic shapes: flat sheets and panels, hollow tubes, pipes and tanks as well as solid profile channels and rods. FRP is lightweight, which helps ease the transportation and installation processes as well as general handling.
Fiberglass reinforced plastics are manufactured one of three different ways, depending on the shape of the product being formed. Molds, often called mandrels, in the form of the desired product shape are used. Heat and pressure help form layers of the composite materials to the mold. Therefore, thermoplastics must always be used so they can achieve a flexible, near-molten state. The fiberglass reinforcement layer is composed of either chopped strand mats or woven glass fibers. The resin material is either sprayed or rolled onto the mold. For shapes that are round, like tanks and pipes, a centrifugal molding method is used. Open molding uses a single mold. The first layer, a gel coat, is applied and let dry. Next, the fiberglass material is rolled on as well as the spray-on resin material. Closed molding is similar but uses a mold consisting of two different, separate parts. The gel and fiberglass layers are applied to one mold, and the other is then pressed against it. Next, the resin is injected in molten form. This method is used for parts like panels and corrugated sheets.
