Description
Material consisting of fibrous mass, similar to cotton wool, obtained through the action of violent blasts of air on cast glass or molten puffy material (basalt).
Fibres which are made up of glass or puffy wool are rather coarse and have very different lengths and diameters. However, the simplicity of the working process, the low cost of primary materials, combined with the low thermal conductivity of the glass and the ability to immobilize air in the cracks between the fibres, make this a widely used material as a thermal and thermal-acoustic insulator in building and other industrial applications.
The conductivity of glass wool is about 15 times lower than that of brickwork.
Acoustic insulation is also significant: sounds which go through a common 12-cm-thick common brick wall are reduced by about 80% if the wall is covered with a 2-cm-thick layer of glass fibre.
In the building industry, it is used, for example, in insulating buildings, fridge walls, ovens, heaters etc..
In these uses, biocompatible glass is currently used, so that if the fibres are breathed in, they dissolve without causing any lung damage.