Glass fiber producer AGY (Aiken, S.C., USA) announced on July 18 the start of production of its trademarked S-1 HM glass in conjunction with CTG/Taishan Fiberglass (Shandong, China). The material was developed by AGY and will be produced by CTG/Taishan Fiberglass to fill the cost and performance gap between traditional E-Glass products and higher performance glasses such as AGY’s S-2 Glass products.
CTG/Taishan Fiberglass is one of the world’s largest glass fiber manufacturers whose main focus is supplying the highest quality glass fiber to its customers at the best price and with the best service. “We are looking forward to working with AGY and producing S-1 HM glass,” said Mr. Zhiyao Tang, chairman and president of CTG/Taishan Fiberglass.
S-1 HM glass was developed primarily for the wind energy market with input from blade and turbine manufactures. While AGY and CTG/Taishan Fiberglass are targeting the wind energy market with S-1 HM, they both believe the material has potential for many other industrial applications. “Since S-1 HM glass is mechanically superior to E-Glass, but much less expensive than the extremely high-end glasses, we feel that S-1 HM will be an excellent fit for composite manufacturers in a wide variety of markets,” says Drew Walker, CEO of AGY.