Basalt Fabric Composites

Some 8 years or so ago my friend, entrepreneur and crazed genius inventor, Chippy, showed me some basalt fiberglass fabric. He declared that it had better properties than glass at a fraction of the cost. I understand that the factory burned down and I forgot about it.
Last week I got to meet Mike and Jenn building a cat in Portland, OR. Mike helps build wind generators. They are looking into basalt fabric. I include these links which I have not yet had time to explore.  So.   

http://basalt-alf.narod.ru/

http://www.basaltfm.com/eng/fiber/info.html

http://www.sudaglass.com/chars.html

http://www.basfiber.com/roving

http://www.basfiber.com/Sites/basfiber/Uploads/BCF%20KV12%20assembled_TDS_eng.202CB9D826F74BC685B3910192BB01FF.pdf

“Check it out. My snowboard has this instead of carbon for stiffness. It is made by Lib Technologies.

http://www.lib-tech.com/technology/basalt/

I have found references that it is 1/4 the cost of Carbon. Though I have not contacted suppliers. I’ll see if this is true.

Other advantages~
Higher UV and heat resistance than carbon

RF Transparent (Military might like this)

non-conductive!!! (better to protect against lightning damage)

environmentally friendly, greenhouse gases released long ago from natural process”  Mike

4 thoughts on “Basalt Fabric Composites”

  1. When I was considering building a boat in ferro, I thought basalt would be a good alternative to steel because it won’t oxidize and further decay the structure. I think it’s the future of cementitious composite construction (including boats). I believe there’s a builder in South Africa building basalt-concrete cats, but I can’t find a link to their web site anymore.

    I very much wonder how much this is being used in the concrete canoe competitions.

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