The glass fiber mat is a sheet-like product made of continuous strands or chopped strands which are bound together by a chemical binder or mechanical action without orientation. Continuous strand mat and stitched chopped strand mat are important raw materials of pultrusion products. One of the biggest disadvantages of pultruded products is that the lengthwise strength is very high but the crosswise strength is very low, which is easy to crack. Application of glass fiber mat as a ring-shaped reinforcing material can make up for its deficiencies.
The continuous fiberglass strand mat is composed of continuous glass fiber monofilaments distributed in a spiral shape, and the coils are twisted to form a multi-node interlaced structure, supplemented by a small amount of adhesive, and dried to form a mat. Fiberglass stitched chopped strand mat is stitched up by chopped fiberglass strands of a certain length, and evenly laid without orientation. Fiberglass mat is widely used in pultrusion process, hand lay-up process and RTM process with below advantages:
1) Make the product surface smooth
2) The loose structure and good permeability of the mat ensure resin penetration completely and fast.
3) Easy to cut and form with good flexibility and lamination, can be applied to molds with complex shapes
4) Improve strength of composite products, but the tensile strength and flexural strength of continuous mat are higher than chopped strand mat.
The glass fiber surface mat is made of glass fiber through a special non-woven process, which has high tensile strength. The mat can improve the product surface performance, and better protect the mold. It is an ideal surface treatment material, advantages as following:
1) Fast resin penetration
2) Good attachment to mold
3) Covering the thread of continuous mat or stitched chopped strand mat
4) Anti-aging, anti-corrosion
