A-A-59784, COMMERCIAL ITEM DESCRIPTION: E-GLASS CLOTH REINFORCEMENT (09-DEC-2005)

A-A-59784, COMMERCIAL ITEM DESCRIPTION: E-GLASS CLOTH REINFORCEMENT (09-DEC-2005)., This commercial item description (CID) covers E-Glass cloth used as the reinforcement media in the manufacture of advanced composite materials using infusion processes or hand lay-up. E-Glass Woven Roving Fabric is one of the major fiber materials used in the composite industry as the reinforcing media for low pressure, high performance resin system manufacturing processes such as Resin Transfer Molding (RTM), Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM), Seemans Composite Resin Injection Molding Process (SCRIMPTM), prepreg hand lay-up, and/or other infusion processes. Usually, fibers consist of thousands of filaments, each filament having a diameter between 5 and 15 microns, allowing them to be producible using textile machines. The filaments are obtained by pulling the molten glass (silicon + sodium carbonate and calcium carbonate at a temperature greater than 1000ºC) through the small orifice of a plate made of platinum alloy. The fibers are normally treated afterwards with sizing and coupling agents. These reduce the effects of fiber-fibre abrasion which can significantly degrade the mechanical strength of the individual fibers. Other treatments may also be used to promote wetting and adherence of the matrix material to the fiber material.