CANZ Glossary of Terms

Material formed from fibres or yarns without interlacing, (e.g.: stitched nonwoven broad goods),

Material constructed of interlaced yarns, fibres, or filaments.

Process of making composite part or tool.

Degradation of colour in gel coat or coatings.

Failure of material’s mechanical properties caused by repeated stress over time.

Maximum cyclical stress withstood for given number of cycles before material fails.

Fibrous material made up of interlocking fibres by mechanical or chemical action, pressure or heat. Felts may be made of cotton, glass or other fibres.

Archaic term formerly used to describe concave surface or inside edge or feature.

Individual rod of sufficiently small diameter to be flexible, having known or approximate limit of length.

Fibre and resin are eroded by weathering or sandpaper at different rates. Resins erode before fibre. As a result, fibre rich surface, when sanded, often has fibres protruding; called fibre blooming.

Amount of fibre in a composite compared to the amount of resin and/or filler.

Glass that has been extruded into extremely fine filaments. These filaments vary in diameter and are measured in microns. Glass filaments are treated with special binders and processed similar to textile fibres. These fibres come in many forms such as roving, woven roving, mat and continuous strands.

The direction of fibre alignment in a laminate. Chopped strand mat has isotropic (all directions) orientation. Knitted ad woven fabrics can have two or more orientations such as 0 deg/90 deg or +45 deg/-45 deg.

Cosmetic defect, visible on exterior gel coat surface that resembles fibre bundle and reflects architecture of glass reinforcement bundle at or near part surface.

General term for composite material or part that consists of plastic matrix containing reinforcing fibres such as glass or carbon having greater strength or stiffness than plastic. FRP is most often used to denote glass fibre-reinforced plastics. “Advanced composite” usually indicates high-performance aramid or carbon fibre-reinforced plastics.

Fibbers similar to wool or cotton fibres but made from glass; sometimes called fibrous glass. Glass fibre forms include cloth, yarn, mat, milled fibres, chopped strands, roving, woven roving.

Single, thread-like fibre or number of these fibres drawn together. Variety of fibre characterised by extreme length, which permits its use in yarn with little or no twist and usually without spinning operation required for fibres.

Process for production of high strength, lightweight products in which tape, roving or single strands are fed from creel through bath of resin (or fed dry using pre-impregnated roving) and wound on suitably designed mandrel. Wound mandrel can be cured at room temperature or in oven.

Relatively inert organic or inorganic materials which are added to resins or gel coats for special flow characteristics, to extend volume, and to low cost of article being produced.

Surface treatment applied to fibres or filaments after they are fabricated into strands, yarn or woven fabrics to allow resins to flow freely around and adhere to them.

Lowest temperature at which liquid in open container will give off enough vapours to continue to burn one ignited. Fire point generally is only slightly higher than flash point.

Compounds mixed with the resin to reduce flammability.,

Circular separation in gel coat film generally caused by contamination such as silicone, oil, dust, water, freshly waxed mould, or low gel coat viscosity.

A polyester resin that has been specifically formulated to reduce the flame spread and/or smoke generation characteristics.

A measure of how fast a material will burn under controlled conditions. ASTM D-635/UL E-894 tests.

An extension around the perimeter of a mould or part for the purposes of demoulding, stiffening, or connecting two components; or for containing over spray.

Lowest temperature at which substance emits enough vapours to form flammable or ignitable mixture with air near the surface of the substance being tested.

Ratio, within elastic limit, of applied stress in test sample in flexure to corresponding strain in outermost fibres of sample. ASTM D-790

Strength of material (in bending) expressed as stress of bent test sample at instant of failure; usually expressed in force per unit area.

High delivery rate from spray gun; in pigmented systems, difference in colour between surface and bulk of film.

Instrument designed to measure flow of liquid.

A lightweight, cellular plastic material containing gas-filled voids.

The process of creating a foam by the combination of two liquid polymers. See In-Situ

Rupture of surface of laminate due to external or internal forces; may or may not result in complete separation.

Highly reactive molecular fragments capable of initiating chemical reactions, such as polymerization of polyester resins.

Term used to describe material that, when dry, can be crumbled, pulverised, or reduced to powder by hand pressure.

Fibre Reinforced Polymers, with evolution of new fibrous materials, GRP (or GRFP) becomes Glass Reinforced Polymers term.

Thickening agent used in polyesters to increase flow or sag resistance qualities, especially on vertical surfaces.