Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymers

Basalt is a natural occurring product that is the only raw component required for Basalt fiber production. No secondary materials are needed to create Basalt fiber like with glass, which requires the mining of several components such as silica sand, limestone, iron oxide, and feldspar.

Basalt fiber is made from Basalt rock, which is a natural, extrusive igneous rock formed by lava. To produce the fiber, mined Basalt rock with a particular purity level is first washed, crushed, and then placed into a furnace at a temperature of approximately 1500°C.  The resulting melt is extruded through a "bushing", a precious metal block with thousands of microscopic holes, each producing a single filament. Upon leaving the bushing, the fiber filament hardens, a sizing is applied to optimize adhesion to the matrix material, and then fiber filaments are wound into a strand.

Basalt fiber-reinforced plastic applications are very diverse and can be used across various industries including aerospace and defense, automotive and transportation, aviation, building and construction, electronics, energy generation, industrial, insulation and thermoacoustic, shipbuilding, and sporting goods.

Applications include:

• Automotive parts
• Structural composites
• Highway reinforcements
• Buildings
• Seawalls
• Bridges
• Turbine blades
• Kayak paddles
• Exhaust system insulation
• Prosthetics
• Orthotics
  
  

In automotive applications, it is used as a chopped discontinuous fiber compounded into injection moldable thermoplastics.

Basalt fiber, both chopped and continuous, provides superior mechanical properties compared to glass fiber for injection moldable thermoplastics used in a variety of automotive parts.  Specifically, it offers improved tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact properties compared to currently used materials. Basalt fiber offers a clear value proposition in nylon resins as a replacement for existing filled materials. Basalt fiber can be blended with other fibers providing an excellent balance of cost and performance when targeting structural automotive applications.

The balance of strength and stiffness from Basalt fiber can lead to potential weight savings over other filler technologies. As an injection moldable thermoplastic compound compared to a glass fiber filled product, the advantages are improved tensile, impact, and flexural strength at the same product density. Basalt fiber is a more environmentally sustainable product for companies seeking to reduce carbon footprint. The manufacture of basalt fiber produces virtually no emissions due to low fusion loss, yielding a 50% reduction in emissions compared to traditional glass fibers.

Basalt fiber-filled end use products are typically a drop-in replacement for current glass or carbon fiber-filled products and integrate smoothly into most production processes configured for glass fiber materials.

Basalt fiber-filled thermoplastics provide an excellent value and balance of mechanical properties offering an environmentally friendly filler technology which may lead towards achieving cost, weight, and sustainability targets for parts made with basalt fiber-reinforced nylon or polypropylene.

• Comparable properties vs. E-glass fibers in thermoplastic compounds
• Excellent balance of stiffness and ductility
• Performs well in extreme temperatures
• Low water absorption
• Electrically non-conductive
• Good UV stability
• Excellent chemical resistance
• Low coefficient of thermal expansion
• Better sound insulation than E-glass fibers
• Won’t rust, highly resistant to alkalis, acids and salt
• Exceptional cost-to-value performance