Carbon and graphite fibres are strong and used on organic polymers and used as composite material in compressor turbine blades in jet engines and in the construction of aircraft and spacecraft. As electrical conductors the filaments are made from boron and boron-derivative fibres.
Refractory oxide fibres, as from silica or aluminium, may be used in high temperature and in oxidizing environments. They are difficult to spin because of their comparatively critical melting temperatures and narrow viscosity ranges. Alumina fibres are drawn from a fused silica tube.
Silica carbon fibres are made by drawing continuous filaments from a solution of viscose rayon and sodium silicate. These filaments are pyrolyzed or heated to a high temperature in nitrogen to form a silica-carbon fibre that may be converted to a silicon carbide fibre by heating at temperatures above 1,500 o C. NB: Silica carbide we know in the form of carborundum.
Whiskers are single crystal fibres of extremely high strength. Made mixed with aluminium and silicone they have a high elastic module and they are used in composites with resins, metals or ceramics.

The next generation of composite materials wherein textile is combined with glass, metal and/or ceramics. These are fabricated by composite spun, coated or layered. The fabrics are fire insulating and fire retarding, heath and noise insulating, require steam cleaning, are light weight and yet durable. E-glass hybrids can be used as silencers and for wall coverings that survey to insulate against static radiation emitted from the grouping of computers found in most offices. Laminate and sandwich: laminate is made out of two or more materials, one at the top is mostly a film, glued or thermo-sealed together. A sandwich has also an airy layer of foam or Fibrefil with a connection system that is quilted or sealed. Glass fibre laminates and sandwiches with glass fibres are used in clothing, tent building and architecture. Garments, or their various sections, can be strengthened at the head, spine, knees and elbows. For fire fighters, sports and working clothes these materials can be formed in moulds.

The design by Boston architect Moshe Safdie for a museum commemorating Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel assassinated in November 1995, comprised a confusing steel construction topped by a layer of concrete. The shell-like shape of the roofs was spatially curved – one might call it a "free form" creation – being determined not by geometric formulae but by a handmade model. Mick Eekhout of Octatube came up with an alternative idea, consisting of a two-layer sandwich of polyester reinforced with glass fibres with foam in between – a construction much like surfboards. Since the maximum dimension was 20 m x 30 m, a further development was needed, following a transfer of technology based on the production techniques for sailing ship hulls, in order to transform this project into a new but fully developed technological creation. Each new aspect was a layer of innovation. Alongside the choice of a new production technique (borrowed and adapted), the project involved the geometric engineering and fixing of the free form of the shell-like roofs and the intermediate and surrounding glass facades and concrete walls; the production of highly individualised segments from a corresponding number of templates; the transportation, assembly and hoisting of the segments to form a constructive whole; the setting-up of a construction site 5,000 kilometres away from Octatube's offices; and the fact of having to work in pitiless temperatures (40° C in the shade), in a south-facing location. It was a highly experimental, five-fold stroke of innovation, which ensured the emergence of a groundbreaking system of engineering, production, assembly and erection for free form roofs. Glass was used, in the form of double glass panels in the facades and single glass panels in the banana-shaped framework strips; everything was precisely engineered and produced elsewhere in such a way as to fit in its rightful place, with the seven layers of glass fibre fabrics, fully impregnated with polyester resin, forming an upper and a lower layer within a strong, 7 mm thick skin, together having a sandwich effect: when there is a strong gust of wind, the upper skin is subjected to a pushing force whilst the lower one is subjected to a corresponding pulling force and the intermediate layer of foam and the stringers or vertical elements connecting them, made from GRP, ensure the rigidity of the construction, which for the rest is considerably less rigid than in the case of a steel or concrete construction. But it all combines to create a manifestly sculptural effect. Prof. dr. ir. Mick Eekhout
The design process was on show until May 2012 as part of the Connecting Concepts exhibition, showcasing Dutch design, at the Designhuis in Eindhoven. Prior to that, the exhibition took the form of a travelling show, visiting different places in India and China.

In our Low Lands geotextiles have always been used to build dikes. Rush mats and baskets were used as sinkers. After World War II, these man made textiles found a use on an environmental scale. Glass fibre mats and membranes are now used for roads, dikes and mountain building. For the disposing of waste and toxic materials, the poison is wrapped within a geotextile that is strong, non-corrosive an impervious to leaking.
3-Dimensional textile
Moulded textiles that are woven or knitted flat, can be impregnated with a resin, the prepeg, then, laid into a warmed mould so that the resin weakens allowing the fabric to be shaped by thermo forming and thermo moulding. NB: When processed without resin, this technique is called thermo setting. In other methods the resin is sprayed into the mould as liquid or as granulates and heated. It is possible to reinforce the textile with pull trusioned glass fibre, carbon, metal and/or ceramic, while the reinforcement consists of glass pearls, filament, matting, fibres or pull trusioned fibres. 3-D weaving and braiding: special weaving, braiding and knitting techniques are developed to produce a 3-dimensional textile. The ribbons can be shaped in an I, L, H, or O profile with one material at the outside and another as filling. Bands of glass and polyester (US. PES, Europe: PL) or from PFTE (polytetrafluoroethylene, the brand name is Teflon) combined with glass are used as packaging material, for geo and transport techniques.

Aluminium Silicate Fibres
Fibres spun of aluminium silicate provides a lightweight, high temperature heat barrier with an excellent thermal shock resistance, resilience, chemical stability and electrical properties. Used as high-temperature filters, packings, gaskets, thermal, electrical and acoustical insulation they can stand up to 1,260 o C. The many forms produced include blankets, sheets, boards, loose fill, mouldable material, tubes, modules and vacuum-formed plates and forms. Micropore, made from silica and titanium oxide, is used for furnace and kiln insulation and kiln material for moulds and separation layers. Fibre paper, as mineral or ceramic felt, is used as separation material between the kiln bottom and the glass. Ceramic fibre mats (where glass is deliberately modified into a polycrystalline structure) are used for insulation, together with a hardener for making forms and moulds. Ceramic fibre plates are used as bottom plates in the kiln and as relief, slump and bending forms. Wet felt is a felt soaked in a hardener for slump and bending forms. The material dries by evaporating and has to be fired later. Ceraboard is used for the making of relief and bending forms. Water glass is used as hardener. Silicate-tex, as Sli-tex, is a woven cloth of filament yarns and is used to protect soft kiln insulation material and is suitable as kiln material where previously dangerous asbestos weavings would been have used. Form and insulation pastes are produced on a base of aluminium oxide and usable for reparation of glass fibre or chamotte furnaces and kilns. These are used, as well, for reinforcing kiln forms with the pâte-de-verre technique and bending forms. Faserplast and fire cement or form concrete is paste for making moulds and forms.

Safety & Health
Glass fibres can replace asbestos but are not harmless. Ask your supplier for the security regulations. When working with this material, security measures must be observed, just as with other kiln materials: its whirling minuscule parts penetrate through our skin and into lung tissues. You must protect your skin, hair and eyes with properly fitting clothes, gloves, masks and spectacles. Wash clothes separately, rinse hair and skin with cold water first before taking a shower. Special fine dust masks need to be used, this prevents inhaling the parts. *Working with synthetic materials like epoxy you also need a suitable air filter, additionally the toxic air needs to be extracted. *Working with silica, silicon or silicate minerals and all kiln forming and insulation materials you need to protect your lungs against cancer and silicosis, a lung disease which stonecutters, form makers and miners often suffer from.
NB: Glass is ecological, harmless to the environment, non-toxic and has a high resistance against corrosion.

Silica, Silicon, Silicate minerals and Silicone
Silica or silicon dioxide is a compound of silicon and oxygen. The mass of the Earth’s crust is 59 % silica, the main constituent of more than 95 % of the known rocks. Silica has three main silica minerals crystalline varieties: quartz, trydymite and crystobalite. Silica is used in buildings and roads in the form of Portland cement, concrete and mortar; in sandstone; as grinding and polishing material for glass and stone; in foundry moulds; in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, silicon carbide or diamond and glass grinding and polishing material, ferrosilicon and silicones; as a refractory material and as gemstones. Commonly known materials are quartz, feldspar, silica, clay, mica and talc. Silicon (from Latin silex and sillicis for flint) is a non-metallic chemical element in the carbon group. Like quartz it could be softened by heating and shaped into glassware. Silica gel is a non crystalline form of silica that is used to remove moisture from gases and liquids, as well as, to thicken liquids, to impart a dull surface to paints and synthetic films and in the fabrication of water glass. As the in-between among grains of sand, found on some beaches it produces ‘singing sand’. Silicate minerals are naturally occurring in silicon-oxygen compounds of various metals such as lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, manganese, iron and aluminium. Silicone includes any of a diverse class of chemical compounds manufactured in the form of fluids, resins or elastomers and it belongs to the family of polymers. The silicone resins are used in protective coatings, electrically insulated varnishes, as well as, for sealing and laminating glass cloth and as glues and cements for glass.

Angela van der Burght © 2002 This Side Up! and 2003 Fjoezzz

Thanks to Riekje Jouvenaz-Broekman, former lecturer at the Academy of Visual Arts Maastricht and former member SFBVO Commission Federation BVO and Glossary (Visual Arts Education Foundation Federation) TeHaTex, with whom I wrote most of this article.

Translation: Ingrid Bongers

Read Part I>