| Fibreglass, or fiberglass, is one of the world's lightest | | | | are light enough and strong enough to greatly enhance |
| and strongest materials. Its real name is GRP, or Glass | | | | performance without endangering the vehicle's |
| Reinforced Plastic: because it's plastic, it's extremely | | | | operator. |
| light; and because it is reinforced with tiny fibres of | | | | So how does the material used by fiberglass |
| glass (hence the name fibreglass), it's also superbly | | | | manufacturers actually work? The tiny glass strands in |
| strong. Fiberglass manufacturers, particularly the ones | | | | the plastic (if you hold fibreglass up to a strong light |
| that have been involved in the industry for a long time, | | | | source, you can see them "trapped" in the substance |
| have developed countless ways of exploiting this dual | | | | of the plastic) perform the same job that steel bars do |
| property of lightness and strength to engineer moulds | | | | inside reinforced concrete. All that force, the turning |
| and components for some of the world's most tricky | | | | and twisting, the speed, weight changes and so on, is |
| engineering problems. | | | | spread out through and absorbed by the glass fibres. |
| To be light and strong is the Holy Grail of almost all | | | | Any shock hitting a construction made of fibreglass, |
| engineering. Strength, of course, is always desirable | | | | any torsion forces, is and are dissipated through the |
| – the stronger something is, the longer it lasts, which | | | | whole edifice. Once the shock or force is spread so |
| makes it better value for money. Usually, strength | | | | thinly it ceases to be a danger – the whole of the |
| comes at a price. The tougher one builds something, | | | | object is dealing with it rather than just an impact or |
| the heavier one is likely to make it. Strong things tend | | | | load bearing point. |
| to be dense, mass-wise. Dense things weigh a lot – | | | | Fiberglass manufacturers, of whom, in the UK, Stuart |
| and the more something weighs, the fewer | | | | Pease is reputed to be one of the best (Stuart Pease |
| applications it has in the real world. Take cars, for | | | | is certainly one of the oldest fibre glass manufacturing |
| example – machines that fiberglass manufacturers | | | | firms in the UK, having started out pretty much when |
| like UK based Stuart Pease have been helping to build | | | | the technology did), have been responsible for some |
| for a pretty long time now. Performance cars cannot | | | | startling civic innovations over the years – |
| afford to be heavy – otherwise they won't go fast | | | | developing methods of storing all sorts of nasty |
| enough. But they have to be strong to protect their | | | | chemicals and offering the ideal substance for creating |
| driver – and so that the extreme forces all that | | | | heavy use public furniture like sports stadia seats. The |
| speed brings to bear on them won't cause them to | | | | miracle material allows them to build strong and build |
| break up. A lot of concept cars and true sports cars | | | | long, safe in the knowledge that the light weight nature |
| are made with fibreglass shells – which, thanks to | | | | of the stuff will get around most engineering problems. |
| the pioneering work of companies like Stuart Pease, | | | | |