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Soon after the Egyptians
mastered the manufacture of glass, resistant to wear through centuries
but fragile in the mass, they discovered the virtues of glass filament.
Strong enough to "reinforce" the vases and amphorae found
in the tombs of the Pharaohs. A product of human intelligence, the
first artificial filament was born.
Tiberius and the Roman Empire, Murano and the Italian Renaissance,
Réaumur and the Siècle des Lumières, then Napoleon
and the pre-industrial era : from one age to another, glass strand
has spanned the millennia, to occupy at last its rightful place in
our high-tech century. Thanks to the Saint-Gobain group of companies
-heir of the famous Manufacture Royale des Glaces created by Colbert
in 1665 and bearer of three centuries of glass-making tradition- Europe
began to set up its own production facilities in 1938.
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The manufacture of glass is carried out in a
special furnace at about 1550°C (E glass) using finely ground
raw materials from carefully selected quarries.
The glass leaving the furnace at a very high temperature is used to
feed bushings (blocks pierced with hundreds of holes) of platinum
alloy.
The majority of Saint-Gobain Vetrotex products are based on E glass.
Other glasses are also used, for example R glass (high mechanical
performance), D glass (high dielectric performance), AR glass (Alkali
and corrosion resistant glass).
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The basic strand is made by forming.
Forming is achieved by drawing the molten glass flowing from the holes
of the bushing at high speed. This forms to between 50 and several
hundred filaments. These filaments are defined by their diameters:
from 5 to 13 microns (1µm = 1/1000 mm).
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The individual filaments of Saint-Gobain
Vetrotex reinforcements receive a coating of size at the forming stage,
immediately after they leave the bushing. This size, made up of organic
products dispersed in water, is designed to give the glass strand
certain characteristics necessary for the end application. For textile
applications, sizes are generally starch/oil based. For some applications,
special sizes can usually contain other film formers than starch and
a silane type chemical "coupling agent" which contributes
to enhancing the mechanical and ageing properties of the end product.
Saint-Gobain Vetrotex products are either manufactured immediately
after they leave the bushing (direct roving) or made up of basic strands
subjected to finishing operations which are more or less complicated
(twisting for yarns, plying, texturizing, assembly of rovings, chopping
of strands and warping). |
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