subject: GRP mouldings – the most flexible engineering solution on the planet [print this page] Most engineering projects are a trade off between weight and strength: or, to put it another way, between the amounts of force a finished article can withstand in its working life, and the quantity of material it takes to impart that capability. This is why GRP mouldings are so widely used, and so successful across a range of completely different applications.
GRP or Glass Reinforced Plastic, to give it its proper name is a unique material, in that it has been used with stellar success for well over 50 years, without anything coming along and usurping it. We've all seen GRP in one form or another (it is commonly referred to as fibre glass): in the roofs of sports centres and other municipal buildings; in the hulls of boats; in the seating at sports stadia; and in the carriages of trains and roller coasters. Anywhere there is a need for a complex shape to be made lightly but with the power to withstand strong forces, GRP mouldings are first in line with a solution.
The glass in glass reinforced plastic works like a steel rod in a block of compressed cement. All the different twisting forces, lateral forces and horizontal forces that the plastic might be affected by are dissipated by the little ribbons of glass which, because they appear in no regular order, are far more capable of reacting well to uneven or sudden forces than a more uniformly composed material. That makes glass reinforced plastic one of the strongest substances on earth, for its weight and mass. GRP mouldings, by extension, can turn out some of the strongest items on earth, given their own density and construction.
Because glass reinforced plastic is plastic, it can be melted, heated and moulded with ease. As far as GRP moulding is concerned, there's almost no limit on the shapes or sizes one can make if it can be thought of it can probably be made with glass reinforced plastic. There's no other manufacturing material so versatile. And certainly no other manufacturing material that can retain and maintain its strength even after having been moulded in this way. GRP mouldings will hold almost any shape without that shape compromising the compressive strength of the glass because, as noted, those glass strands occur irregularly and are faced in all directions.
Even stupendously complex shapes can be moulded from GRP. Because the finished material is light, it's easy to make sections of an object, which can be fitted together after moulding without adding too much weight to the finished article. And because it is so malleable, it's also highly capable of assuming complex shapes in a single part mould.
GRP mouldings have been turning out glass reinforced plastic components, parts and shapes for a long time and, while there have obviously been changes and improvements to the machinery that makes the moulds, the material has remained as it always was. That says pretty much everything. If you want something done well, do it with GRP.
GRP mouldings the most flexible engineering solution on the planet
