JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #78 - January/February 2013 - 17

Glass fibre production
worldwide: keeping pace
After having weathered the economic
crisis, the market for glass-fibre-reinforced
composites continues to expand, as we indicated the last time we discussed this topic.

Tab. 1: Global roving production capacity (direct, chopped, mat, ..)

Glass type

HP glass

HiPer-Tex

Europe
Binani/3B-Fibreglass

E -Boron Free

Ahlstrom Glassfibre 0y

E

Cam Elyaf Sanayii AS(Sisecam Group)

E

Johns Manville Europe

E

Lanxess Deutschland Gmbh

T

his section is an update
of the «Global glass-fibre
production: tailoring better for needs» article published
in Issue 66 of July - August 2011.
It mostly follows the structure of
the previous article so that they
can be easily compared.

Glass types
E, ECR (corrosion-resistant),
boron-free (only sold by Owens
Corning and 3B Fiberglass) and
high-performance are still the
four main types of glass fibre. No
revolution. For more detailed key
production parameters, please
read our 2011 article.
Glass fibre manufacturers
continue to focus on enhancing
the properties of fibres, while
lowering the energy required
to draw them. For sure, energy
savings will play a key role in the
competition among the many
players involved (compared with
the lower number of carbon fibre
manufacturers).

Differences between
yarn and roving
Yarn and roving are usually produced by different manufacturers
for different applications. This is
the reason why we continue to
provide separate data for these
two families. Here is a quick
definition of both of them.
Yarn refers to strands less than
300 tex (mass in grams per

Roving is available in the form
of direct roving, assembled
roving, continuous filament mat
and chopped strand. It is used
in many processes, including
weaving, pultrusion, filament
winding and prepregs.

E

OCV Reinforcements

1000 metres) with filaments 5-9
microns in diameter and up to
4 microns in some applications.
This is called “textile” yarn for
weaving on fast air-jet or rapier
looms, mainly for printed circuit
boards (PCB) or electronics
(where the dielectric properties
of the glass formulation are extremely important), and for flexible
reinforcement of Teflon, PVC,
silicon or paper in applications
such as shaders.
Roving refers to strands from
300 to 4000+ tex with filaments
from 10 to 24+ microns in
diameter. The diameter is chosen
as a function of production yield
versus fibre mechanical and
statistical properties, but also
depending on the process.
For example, a 19-micron diameter is quite common for infusion
applications. It allows better resin
flow compared with “standard”
12-micron fibres.

2012
production
(est.)
metric tons/
year

E -Boron Free

PPG Fiber Glass

E

Others
Total Europe

895,000 (20,7%)

USA/Canada/Brazil/Mexico
AGY Holding Corp.

S2

Johns Manville

E

OCV Reinforcements

E -Boron Free

PPG Fiber Glass

E

S(Xstrand)

Others
Total USA/Canada/Brazil/Mexico

845,000 (19,5%)

China/Asie/ROW
CPIC Fiberglass

E/ECR/ECT

Jushi Group Co.,LTD

E/ECR(E6)

Owens-Corning Reinforcements

E -Boron Free

PFG Fiber Glass Corp

E

Sichuan Weibo Co.,Ltd

E

Sinoma Science-Technology Co.,Ltd

E

Taishan Fiberglass Inc.

E, S1*

Taiwan Glass Group

E

Xingtai Jinniu Fiberglass Co.,Ltd

E

Nippon Electric Glass Co.,Ltd

E/ECR

Nittobo

E

KCC Glass Fiber

E

Abahsain Fiberglass M.E.,W.L.L.

ECR

Eastern Petrochemical Company (EPETCO)

ECR

Others
Total China/Asie/ROW

2,590,000 (59,8%)

Total World

4,330,000 (100%)
*S1 under licence from AGY

Global glass fibre
production capacity
We classified the main roving
and yarn producers in two
tables (Table 1 and Table 2,

respectively), by geographical
region of production. Only five
of them appear in both tables,
which shows a certain degree of
specialization in production and

No78 January - February 2013

applications.
Roving production
At 4,330,000 metric tons,
roving production shows a 5.6%

/ jec composites magazine 17
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #78 - January/February 2013

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