Replacing stainless steel with FRP

With the rise in the price of stainless steel over the past seven years, FRP has opened up new opportunities to compete for business in the chemical-storage and fluid-handling markets. The trend upward in alloyed steel prices over this period has made FRP a better choice in many cases because not only will it outperform steel,fiberglass chopped strand mat it has had a better price point.

Because many end-users have traditionally specified alloyed steel for corrosive applications, glass suppliers have been playing catch-up, having to educate customers about the nuances of composite structure, performance requirements in highly corrosive environments and the need to specify the right glass. Although the more robust vinyl ester is now the standard resin widely used in FRP tanks, some end-users are still specifying E-glass and boron-free E-CR glass. 

Resin suppliers have been doing a better job of educating the end-users on the right materials to use in corrosive applications, whereas glass suppliers have sort of dropped the ball by mainly interacting with only the fabricators. Owens Corning recently published a Glass Fiber Chemical Resistance Guide to help customers select glass reinforcements in corrosive environments. You can also get more information of the chopped strand mat in corrosive application on our web: zccyfiberglass.com.