An Overview of Fibre Glass Insulation and its Relatives
Fibre Glass belongs to a family of man-made materials known as Synthetic Vitreous Fibres (SVF). This family of materials has also been called man-made vitreous fibres (MMVF) or man-made mineral fibres (MMMF). In addition to fibre glass, SVFs include mineral wool (rock, stone, and slag wools) and refractory ceramic fibres, they are all produced from molten glass consisting mainly of silica oxide (although differing in actual percent of composition), other oxides of aluminium, sodium, potassium, and/or other metal oxides. The raw materials for SVFs, are either rock, slag, clay, or sand and inorganic chemicals.. However, only fibre glass contains boron (boric oxide), as such, it is also referred to as borosilicate fibre glass. In addition, fibre glass contains relatively higher amounts of alkali (sodium and potassium). SVFs differ mainly in fibre diameter, tensile strength, resiliency, and maximum temperature limits, as such, their actual application vary according to required specifications and suitability.

Family Chart of Synthetic Vitreous Fibres (SVF)
Fibre Glass	Glasswool	For thermal and Acoustic Insulation.
		For Filtration, Aerospace, and Speciality Products.
	Continuous Filament
Mineral Wool	Rock/Stone Wool
	Slag Wool
Refractory Ceramic Fibres	Pure Oxides
	Kaolin

Fibre glasswool for thermal and acoustic insulation are produced with average fibre diameter within 3-8 microns. For filtration, aerospace and speciality products where finer fibre diameters are required, the fibre glasswool are produced within 0.25-2.5 microns. Continuous filaments are produced differently. In this process, streams of molten glass are pulled through holes in the base of a melting pot and are wound onto spools. As the spools turn, the glass streams continue to be pulled from the melting pot and stretched into filaments (long fibres). The diameters of these long fibres are adjusted to suit their intended use and fall between 6-25 microns. Subsequently, these continuous glass filaments or glass textile fibre (as they are also called) are used in industrial fabrics and screens, and as reinforcements for construction materials such as shingles and roofing mats.
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