Don't Just Focus On Carbon Fiber; This King Of Cost-effectiveness Is The Real Sales Champion.
I. What exactly is fiberglass?
The raw materials for fiberglass are actually very common: quartz sand, limestone, boric acid, etc. Yes, the same raw materials used in window glass in our daily lives.
By melting at high temperatures (approximately 1200-1400℃) and drawing them into fibers using a platinum spinneret, fiberglass with a diameter of only 5-20 micrometers can be obtained-much finer than a human hair (approximately 80 micrometers).
Despite their thinness, the tensile strength of a single filament can reach 2000-3500 MPa, similar to that of steel wire.
Data source: The description of the fiberglass production process is common industry knowledge; mechanical property data refers to the national standard GB/T 18369-2022 "Glass Fiber Untwisted Roving".
II. Data Speaks: Why is Glass Fiber the "King of Cost-Effectiveness"?
Carbon fiber is 2-3 times stronger than fiberglass, but its price is 10-20 times higher. In many scenarios where "ultimate performance" is not required, fiberglass cost-effectiveness is far superior.
To use an analogy: carbon fiber is like a sports car-top-tier performance, top-tier price; fiberglass is like a pickup truck-good enough, durable, and inexpensive. The industrial sector doesn't need every vehicle to be a sports car; pickup trucks are the real workhorses.
Data Sources:
Comparison of Carbon Fiber/Glass Fiber Composite Performance Data: Based on the "Composites Market Report 2025" global composite materials market report published by Composites United, and the carbon fiber mechanical properties database published in Nature's Scientific Data journal.
Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Material Market Data: According to QYResearch's research report "Global Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite Material Industry Overall Scale, Major Enterprises' Domestic and International Market Share and Ranking in 2026," the global carbon fiber reinforced composite material market sales reached 50.9 billion yuan in 2025.
Material Performance Standards: Referencing national standards GB/T 26752-2020 "Polyacrylonitrile-based Carbon Fiber" and GB/T 18369-2022 "Glass Fiber Untwisted Roving."
III. Five Key Advantages of Glass Fiber
1. Lightweight and High Strength: GFRP has only 1/4 the density of steel, but comparable strength. A GFRP I-beam weighs only about 1/3 of a steel beam with the same load-bearing capacity. Data Source: Comparative experimental data on mechanical properties referenced a comparative study of recycled carbon fiber and glass fiber published in the journal *Composites Part A*, ScienceDirect. This study showed that the density range of fiber-reinforced composites is 1.7-2.0 g/cm³.
2. Corrosion Resistance is Paramount
This is GFRP's forte. Steel rusts, aluminum corrodes, but GFRP can withstand decades of immersion in seawater, acids, and alkalis, remaining intact.
Real-world examples: Hydrochloric acid storage tanks in chemical plants, cable trays by the sea, and pipelines in sewage treatment plants-metal materials in these places fail within a few years, but GFRP can last for over 20 years.
3. Inherent Insulation
Carbon fiber is conductive (which is actually a disadvantage in some situations), but glass fiber is a perfect insulator.
This is why: circuit boards use glass fiber cloth as the substrate; insulated ladders in substations must be made of fiberglass; radar radomes must be made of glass fiber composites-because it does not block electromagnetic waves.
Data Source: The above application areas are described as general industry knowledge. Regarding the application of fiberglass in the electronics field, refer to the national standard GB/T 18373-2013 "E-fiberglass cloth for printed circuit boards".
4. Low Cost
GFRP's raw materials-quartz sand and limestone-are abundant on Earth. The production process is also relatively mature, and the cost is far lower than carbon fiber.
To manufacture a 1-meter-long profile:
Fiberglass: tens of yuan
Carbon fiber: hundreds to thousands of yuan
5. Good Wave Transmission
This is fiberglass's unique advantage. Radar signals can penetrate fiberglass without obstruction, but will be reflected by metal.
Therefore, you will find:
Aircraft radomes are made of white fiberglass
The "mysterious cylinder" behind cell phone towers is also fiberglass
The covers of military stealth antennas
All are made of GFRP.
IV. Where is Fiberglass Used? From the Sky to the Ground
Construction and Infrastructure
This is GFRP's largest market.
• Bridges: All-GFRP bridges, GFRP bridge deck paving, GFRP guardrails
• Buildings: Curtain walls, skylights, cooling towers, bathroom fixtures
• Underground: Septic tanks, rainwater collection tanks, inspection wells
• Data Source: According to information from the National Standardization Technical Committee website, the National Technical Committee for Standardization of Fiber Reinforced Plastics has initiated a revision of the national standard "Fiber Composite Material Sheets for Structural Reinforcement and Repair" (Project No.: 20253785-T-609), covering the reinforcement and repair applications of carbon fiber, aramid, and glass fiber sheets.
Transportation
• Automobile bumpers, spoilers, fairings
• Truck cabs, van bodies
• Subway car seats, high-speed rail interior parts
• Ship hulls (yachts, fishing boats, patrol boats)
• Industry and Chemical Industry: Corrosion protection is a necessity.
• Chemical pipelines, storage tanks, and reaction vessels
• Flue gas desulfurization equipment chimney lining
• Wastewater treatment plant grilles and platforms
• New energy
• Wind turbine blades (core material)
• Photovoltaic support frame
• Battery pack casing
• Sports and leisure
• Ordinary fishing rods
• Park slides and children's playground equipment
• Simple tent frames
Electronic products
• Printed circuit boards (copper clad laminates)
• Mobile phone antenna area (for signal penetration)
• Specific data on wind turbine blades: Currently, mainstream onshore wind turbine blades generally exceed 80 meters, and offshore wind turbine blades can reach over 100 meters. According to a NASA technical report released by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the difference in elastic modulus between the unidirectional continuous fiber system and the short fiber system of IM7 carbon fiber/PEKK composite material in the three principal directions is less than 15%, and the tensile and compressive strengths are basically equivalent. This technology provides data support for the design optimization of large composite material structures such as wind turbine blades. V. The Future of Fiberglass: Green, High-Performance, and Intelligent
Trend 1: Boron-Free and Fluorine-Free Environmentally Friendly Fiberglass
Traditional fiberglass production releases small amounts of boron and fluorine. The current trend is to phase out boron- and fluorine-containing formulations and produce truly "green fiberglass."
Trend 2: High-Performance Thermoplastic Composites
Traditional GFRP mostly uses thermosetting resins, which are not recyclable. Now, using thermoplastic resins (such as PP and PA) as the matrix is becoming a hot trend.
Core Advantage: Recyclable – Waste materials can be crushed and re-injected into molds.
According to research published in the journal *Composites Part A*, recycled carbon fiber reinforced PA66 composites can achieve more than 80% of the physical properties of virgin carbon fiber composites and can be used for lightweighting non-structural components.
Trend 3: Intelligent and Online Monitoring
Embedding fiber optic sensors in key GFRP structures such as blades and bridges allows for real-time monitoring of strain and temperature. The structural health is clearly monitored from the backend.
Related National Projects: According to publicly available data from the National Basic Science Public Science Data Center, the National Key Research and Development Program project "Large Tonnage Carbon Fiber Composite Cables for Bridges of the Sichuan-Tibet Railway" (Project No.: 2021YFB3704400) has conducted research on the bending and impact resistance properties of composite materials under extreme working conditions (different pretension, span, and load positions). The dataset contains more than 6,000 test files and the data volume reaches 7.16 GB.
