Lanxess sees hike in demand for milled short glass fibers

The milled short glass fibers also have attractive potential applications outside of “conventional” plastics compounding. For example, they could be used in coatings with fire-resistance additives, as they improve the effectiveness of the flame retardant. They can also be used when manufacturing fillers based on epoxy resins so as to optimize the viscosity of the chemical reaction partners and the strength of the filler.

Their small size also makes them ideal for use in reinforcing thermoplastics used by 3D printers to build up components layer by layer. “They also have good potential in ceramic catalysts for removing nitrogen oxides from wastewater and waste air, for example. They allow the catalyst honeycombs to be made very small, resulting in a large catalyst surface area and high effectiveness,” says Wiemer.

LANXESS