Re: fiberglass cloth versus mat?
Hi,<br /><br />Glass mat is a structure of long glass filaments that are randomly placed to form a sheet, a non-woven structure.<br /><br />Cloth is a woven structure of glass filaments generally having the weft threads (running the width of the roll) at 90 deg to the warp threads (which run the length of the roll). This is called straight cut.<br /><br />In a homogenous structure glass cloth is much stronger than glass mat due to the more formal placement of the glass yarns. Glass cloth also offers more repeatable results as the structure is not random.<br /><br />Mat is cheaper than cloth. <br /><br />Cloth gives a better surface finish than mat.<br /><br />Mat is more conformable than cloth and will more readily take a shape. For cloth to achive near to the same conformability one has to move from a straight cut variety to what is known as bias cut. This is where the warp and weft threads run at +- 45 deg to the length of the roll. The process to produce bias cut cloth is more wastefull, time consumiing and consequently even more expensive.<br /><br />Hope this helps <br /><br />Cheers<br />Andrew
