Basalt Fiber (BF) is a continuous fiber made from pure natural basalt rock material, which is crushed and then added to the melting furnace, melted at a high temperature of 1450℃～1500℃, and drawn through a platinum rhodium alloy drawing slip plate at a high speed. . The diameter of the basalt fiber produced by the existing technology can reach 6~13μm, which is thinner than a human hair.
Basalt fiber was first made by Paul Dhe of France in 1923. During World War II, the technology was vigorously developed by the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union, and was widely used in military and aerospace fields. In 1995, with the decryption of the technology, basalt fiber technology was greatly promoted in the civilian field.
According to statistics, the global basalt fiber market reached 227 million U.S. dollars in 2019, and is expected to exceed 250 million U.S. dollars by 2020. The compound annual growth rate of the global basalt fiber market from 2017 to 2020 exceeds 15%.
Main application areas
Basalt fiber is now one of the four major fibers (basalt fiber, carbon fiber, aramid fiber, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber) that my country’s focus on development. Various products made from it are widely used in national defense, military, aerospace, In the fields of fire protection, environmental protection, vehicle and ship manufacturing, petrochemicals, power electronics, sports, medical and civil engineering, the following is a brief description of the main application areas.
01, invisible
Basalt fiber has the characteristics of high strength, high and low temperature resistance, and it is very suitable for the requirements of aircraft and missile surface materials. At the same time, it has the characteristics of wave absorption and magnetic permeability, which can realize radar stealth. Therefore, basalt carbon fiber can partially replace carbon fiber for stealth aircraft and missiles.
02, body armor
Current bulletproof vests usually use ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers, which have low heat resistance, and their strength and modulus will decrease under the high temperature melting of the warhead, which affects the bulletproof effect. In contrast, basalt fiber has strong high temperature resistance, so this problem does not exist.
03、 Aerospace
Basalt fiber has low thermal conductivity and good flame-retardant performance. The working temperature range is -269℃~700℃, which is resistant to both high temperature and low temperature. To meet the demanding requirements of materials in the aerospace industry, most of Russia's aerospace materials are made of this material.
04. Automotive applications
●Friction enhancing materials
Basalt chopped fiber has the characteristics of stable high-temperature friction coefficient, low thermal decay and low braking noise, and is suitable as the main reinforcing material of friction materials. This material is beneficial to solve the "thermal decay" phenomenon of traditional automobile brakes, thereby reducing the occurrence of traffic accidents.
●Automotive filter material
The basalt fiber automobile filter material can filter and separate the solid particles in the automobile exhaust gas under high temperature conditions, and reduce the pollution of the automobile exhaust gas to the city, and its filter material has the advantage of maintaining stable performance under high temperature conditions.
●Automotive interior materials
At present, the most widely used interior materials generally have problems such as insufficient strength, volatile gases harmful to the human body when heated, and poor vibration reduction, heat insulation, and sound absorption performance. Compared with the more widely used glass fiber in interior materials, The sound absorption and heat resistance of basalt fiber are far greater than that of E-glass fiber, which is more in line with the requirements of high stiffness, light weight, flame retardant, low cost and no environmental pollution.
●Car dashboard
The use of basalt fiber composite materials to make soft car dashboard frames has high strength, high elastic modulus, better fluidity, impact resistance, fatigue resistance, good corrosion resistance, short production cycle, high production efficiency, and easy realization of complex parts once forming. At the same time, the design thickness of the instrument panel can be reduced accordingly, and the quality is relatively reduced, generally about 25% of the weight.
●Auto Front Bracket
The front end bracket made of basalt fiber-reinforced PP material is integrally molded with corrosion resistance, impact resistance, good dimensional stability, high mechanical properties, and a weight reduction of 20% to 40%. At present, major independent brand car companies are actively researching and developing them to make them one of the main raw materials for the automotive industry, especially for heavy-duty vehicles.
●Car body
The strength and rigidity of basalt are sufficient to meet the needs of automobile body structure, and it has good anti-collision performance while reducing the weight of automobiles.
05、 Road engineering field
Basalt fiber has the advantages of high tensile strength, good mechanical properties, high temperature resistance, UV resistance, acid and alkali resistance, salt resistance, and aging resistance. Compared with other fibers, its comprehensive performance is better, and it also meets the requirements for materials in the road engineering field. Therefore, in recent years, more and more basalt fiber products have been used in road engineering.
Basalt fiber is made into a net-like substrate by warp knitting process. After surface coating treatment, it can be made into basalt fiber geogrid. It is usually used to strengthen asphalt pavement, strengthen roadbed and soft soil foundation; chopped basalt fiber can be used for asphalt mixing The basalt fiber composite bar is mainly used for cement concrete pavement in the field of road engineering.