: anyone care to translate? geo...you da' man. i noticed that none of the
: prices are listed here. sticker shock aversion tactics at work?
Brett,
After an exhaustive web search I’ve concluded most of the world’s fiberglass fabric is made in China. At least no one other than the Chinese claim to produce it. Texas Fiberglass is just a distributor for Chinese product. Probably a front for the Red Army. " How many AK's would you like with that glass order sir? I found a another Chinese site with more/better information. It’s the Zhenjiang Foreign Trade Group, which bills itself as “a good exporter of fiberglass.” Well at least their chinglish is better. www.yzintltrade.com

It’s products include: “FIBERGLASS ALKALI-RESISTANCE MESH FABRIC: The fiberglass alkali-resistant mesh fabric, based on c-glass or E-glass woven fabric and coated by acrylic acid copolymer liquid, possesses the properties of fine alkali-resistant, high strength, good cohesion with resin, excellent in locating, etc. As ideal engineering material in construction. It is mainly used to reinforce cement, pitch, stone wall materials, plastic, waterproof and so on.” Including: “FIBERGLASS SELF-ADHESIVE MESH TAPE This tape is widely used in joining plaster plates, mending drywall cracks and piecing together and making up different kinds of plates, and used in building decoration to prevent from stress cracks and joining cracks caused by temperature change. width-25, 35, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 300 and 1000mm. Roll length-20, 50, 100 meters or according to requirements.” The reason this stuff has to be alkali-resistant is that it is produced for use with concrete and other calcium based materials. I note the claim that good adhesion with resins in not compromised. This makes sense as many of the stucco products used with this mesh have resins mixed in for flexile strength.

They give a similar specifications table as the other site, but this one is easier to understand. For each mesh product it gives the weight of the threads, their spacing, the thickness and weight of the fabric, tensile strength in newtons again and whether it has an adhesive or not.

For the lightest mesh they give a warp thread (along the length) of 88 and a weft (across)of 132. These may be in grams/500 meters. The weave is a warp every 6mm crossed by a weft every 5mm. The weight is 57 grams (2.01062 oz.) per meter (coated).

Now these newtons are still a problem. Named after Isaac Newton (not Wayne), the newton is the absolute unit of the SI (whatever that is) system. It is defined as that force which, if applied to a free body having 1 kg (2.2 lb.) mass, would give the body an acceleration of 1 meter per second squared. They’re comparable to foot pounds. Now, we generally see tensile strength stated in psi. Foot pounds are used to state torque or twisting force. But "toughness" to engineers is a measure of the energy absorbed before and during the fracture process; it is equal to the area under the tensile stress. Newtons are a measure of energy. Assuming the table is giving us 500 newtons per square cm., that’s about 45 foot pounds per inch or 2.4×10-5 (that's a -5 exponent)pounds of TNT.

Like I said, something more than nothing.

Still not sold? Then check out this site. They have glass tape up to 12” wide, kevlar tape and (dare I say it?)a fiberglass scrim that is even lighter than drywall tape.