Fiberglass mat - Things to know about fiberglass mat

Glass fiber mats or glass mats are non-woven reinforcement fibers for the production of fiber composite materials.

During production, fiberglass mats are interspersed with binders. During processing, the glass fiber mats are impregnated with polyester resin. The styrene present in the polyester resin causes the binder to dissolve. This allows the fiberglass mats to be easily draped into the desired shape.

Due to the disordered structure of the glass fiber mat, fiber composite materials produced with glass fiber mats have a lower proportion of fibers by volume than, for example, fiber composite materials with glass filament fabric or glass filament fabric.

Glass fiber mats have a high drapability and are also cheaper than most other reinforcement fabrics.

When processing glass fiber mats, it is important to ensure that a glass fiber mat with a lower basis weight is used first in a multi-layer laminate structure. The lower the basis weight, the easier it is to drape the glass fiber mat. In the case of further layers, glass fiber mats with a higher basis weight can then be used to reinforce the fiber composite material.

First of all, fiberglass mats differ in terms of their basis weight. The most common types are 300 g/m² or 450 g/m².

In addition, the fiberglass mat is differentiated according to the binding type. There are powder-bonded fiberglass mats and emulsion-bonded fiberglass mats. The powder binding is based on a powdered polyester resin. The emulsion bond is based on a polyvinyl acetate/water mixture. The differences in the technical characteristics in the fiber composite material are only marginal due to technical progress. To a lesser extent, however, the following principles also apply. Powder-bonded fiberglass mats / glass mats are less drapeable. On the other hand, they are more water-resistant and the laminate is not clouded during lamination. Emulsion-bonded glass fiber mat / glass mat, on the other hand, is easier to process, but has less water resistance in the laminate and a milky veil occurs during lamination.