The Basalt Fiber History

From a volcanic lava to an advanced composite.

From Lava to Rock

Basalt is a type of igneous rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It is the most common rock in the Earth's crust. Basalt rock characteristics vary from the source of lava, cooling rate, and historical exposure to the elements. High quality fibers are made from basalt deposits with uniform chemical makeup.

The Earth mantle has a thin layer called sphere, this thin lava when in contact with superficies will create the basalt Rock, in many places in the earth is possible to find great canyons and natural sculptures made in basalt by the nature, as result of long years of earth center temperature and pressure stabilization.

Even though quality basalt can be found in abundance in the nature, volcanos keep throwing tons of lava in earth atmosphere which reinforced the concept of Advanced Basalt Fiber as a high technology and green composite.

From Rock To Fiber

The process of producing fibers from basalt is based on selecting the richest chemical proprieties basalt rocks with the use of quality tests, crushing the rocks and melting to high temperatures. The melted basalt falls from a specific calculated hole where its temperature gradually decreased and form a yarn which thickness reduces over the cooling process where it gets rolled in a roving.

The Continuous Basalt Fiber is short for CBF, which is make use of the natural volcanic rock as the raw material and put them in the furnace under 1450P0P-1500P0P after being crushed into power and then which are produced by the platinum rhodium drawing filament laminate. Compared to the carbon fiber, Aramid fiber & (UHMWPE), which has many unique advantages. Such as the physical property, the high temperature resistance, continuous work from -269P0P to 700PP,good acid & alkali-resistance, the good UV resistance, the low hygroscopic property, the environmental resistance And sound insulation, high temperature filter-ability, radiation resistance and the excellent wave-adsorption and wave-penetration and so on. Many sorts of composites which are use of the basalt fiber as the reinforced material can be used many fields such as fire, environmental protection, aerospace, armament, automotive & vessels' manufacture, infrastructural material and so on.

Crushed basalt rock is the only raw material required for manufacturing the fiber. It is a continuous fiber produced through igneous basalt rock melt drawing at about 2,700° F (1,500° C).Though the temperature required to produce fibers from basalt is higher than glass, it is reported by some researchers that production of fibers made from basalt requires less energy by due to the uniformity of its heating.

From Fiber to Products

The CBF - Continuous Basalt Filament formed in the melting process of basalt results in our Primary Products product line. The filament can be winded in three types of rovings: Assembled Roving,Direct Roving and Gun Roving. From the chopped filament we produce the Chopped Strands and from twisted filaments ours Twisted Yarns.

From Primary Products to Advanced Products

From our primary products, we produce the market mostAdvanced Basfiber® Products . From weaving the fiber we developed many types of Fabrics for an unlimited number of applications as also fabric Tapes , using square spaced resin impregnated strands Reinforcing Mesh and Scrims and from needle stitch fibers, our Non-Woven.

Comparison with Others Fibers

Compared to carbon and aramid fiber, it has the features of wider application temperature range -452° F to 1,200° F (-269° C to +650° C), higher oxidation resistance, higher radiation resistance, higher compression strength, and higher shear strength. (Note that application temperatures of FRPs are limited by the glass transition temperature of the matrix, which is lower than the application temperature of the fibers.)

Glass Fiber	Basfiber®	Carbon Fiber

Basalt fiber is a relative newcomer to fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs) and structural composites. It has a similar chemical composition as glass fiber but has better strength characteristics, and unlike most glass fibers is highly resistant to alkaline, acidic and salt attack making it a good candidate for concrete, bridge and shoreline structures.

Fiber Comparison Table

When it was developed?

Producing fibers from basalt was researched during the cold war by the old Soviet Union and limited commercial research and production was done in the U.S. during the same period. The Soviets researched basalt as a source of fiber for ballistic resistant textiles.

Here, it is necessary to introduce to you the basalt's research background. In the 20 century 60s', the Russia Department of Defence gave the command to develop the basalt fiber. According to the 1973's Russia news report: the basalt fiber which select the natural ores was widely used, which main referred to the super fine filament. In the 60-70's under the commands of the Russia department of Defence all the Russia glass fiber reinforced plastic and the branch of Ukraine glass fiber academe set about the research and development. For that the Ukraine constructional material industrial department commence the special BIEREQIE heat resistance and sound insulation research union, whose main duty was to research the basalt fiber and the basalt products' production line. The scientific lab of the union commence to develop and research the basalt fiber in 1972, which once had developed the more than 20 kinds of basalt fiber Manufacturing Technical Flow.

In the 1985, the basalt fibers research was completed and made the industrial production can be realized. About 20 years passed since the basalt fibers successful development and mass production in the world.

What fields is the basalt fibers excellent performance in?

After knowing the excellent performance, we can defiantly how to prompt and apply them in the different fields. As we know, no any kind of fiber is all-function including the high-tech fiber and other any fiber. That is to say, Whatever is, is right fiber has its special performance and application market. What are the properties of the continuous basalt fiber? In general, the continuous basalt fiber is a kind of green industrial material of the 21 century. It has the good comprehensive performance and high cost effectiveness. Which is the other fiber can't be followed.

For these the continuous basalt fiber was rewarded the 21 century's new material. The continuous basalt fiber (CBF) is a kind of high performance non-metal inorganic fiber, which is made from the natural volcanic rock (including basalt rock, andesite rock and other mineral substance) in recent years which become more popular among the material fields and clients because of its comprehensive performance and cost effective.