Aleš Lombergar

okkk …here it is…

Glass fiber is formed when thin strands of silica-based or other formulation glass is extruded into many fibers with small diameters suitable for textile processing. Glass is unlike other polymers in that, even as a fiber, it has little crystalline structure (see amorphous solid). The properties of the structure of glass in its soft stage are very much like its properties when spun into fiber. One definition of glass is “an inorganic substance in a condition which is continuous with, and analogous to the liquid state of that substance, but which, as a result of a reversible change in viscosity during cooling, has attained so high a degree of viscosity as to be for all practical purposes rigid.”

The technique of heating and drawing glass into fine fibers has been known to exist for thousands of years; however, the concept of using these fibers for textile applications is more recent. The first commercial production of fiberglass was in 1936. In 1938, Owens-Illinois Glass Company and Corning Glass Works joined to form the Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation. Until this time all fiberglass had been manufactured as staple. When the two companies joined together to produce and promote fiberglass, they introduced continuous filament glass fibers. Owens-Corning is still the major fiberglass producer in the market today.