[HN Gopher] Basalt Woven Textile
___________________________________________________________________
Basalt Woven Textile
Author : rbanffy
Score : 193 points
Date : 2025-11-20 05:41 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (materialdistrict.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (materialdistrict.com)
| california-og wrote:
| Related, there's also stone paper: https://stone-paper.nl/en/
| MgB2 wrote:
| Which is basically HDPE (plastic) foil with limestone filler.
| And a whole website full of marketing that somehow never
| mentions that 20% of the material is non-renewable (made from
| petroleum products) and not biodegradable.
| california-og wrote:
| It does mention it pretty clearly in the "what is stone
| paper" page: https://stone-paper.nl/en/wat-is-stone-paper/
| MgB2 wrote:
| Yes, they say its HDPE, but then conveniently in all their
| talk about sustainability, they somehow forget to talk
| about where HDPE actually comes from. Just that it being
| composed of carbon and hydrogen somehow makes it "clean".
| Which, I guess, is something you could also say about
| things like gasoline. Plastic shopping bags are also made
| of polyethylene. So are they sustainable as well?
| close04 wrote:
| It says what it is in terms like:
|
| > mixed with 20% HDPE, a clean plastic composed of carbon and
| hydrogen
| ninalanyon wrote:
| It's perfectly possible to make polythene from renewable
| feedstock.
| MgB2 wrote:
| Sure it is. But it's also nowhere near cost competitive and
| so no one does. They also don't even claim they're using
| anything else than "normal" HDPE made from ethylene
| distilled from crude oil.
| imtringued wrote:
| They don't use "normal" HDPE, they use recycled HDPE
| which means they don't know what's inside their feedstock
| and it definitively means you can't get rid of the paper
| by burning it, because you're also burning whatever
| mystery chemicals remain inside.
| namibj wrote:
| We know how to turn air into HDPE. It's just energetically
| stupid as long as we feed the electricity grid with fossil
| (hydro) carbon.
| bayindirh wrote:
| The premise is nice, but downsides noted in another comment,
| usability is also a problem.
|
| It's much heavier than a normal notebook, and the surface is
| basically an extremely fine grit sandpaper. It works great with
| pencils and ballpoints, but wetter pens (gel, rollerball) do
| not dry as quick. Also, forget fountain pens. You'll be eating
| away your nib as I write on that paper.
|
| I have a couple of these notebooks, but they sit unused for
| now.
| kragen wrote:
| Limestone itself is not hard enough to wear down metal pen
| nibs, but "stone paper" does slightly polish them, presumably
| due to impurities in the limestone:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbqxasFZwsI
| bayindirh wrote:
| The amount of polish is dependent on the tipping alloy of
| the particular nib.
|
| For example Lamy's tipping alloy is softer than others, so
| that polishing becomes excessive to the point of changing
| nib size. I have an old safari which writes broad after ten
| years of use (the nib is marked medium).
|
| Pilot and Sailor uses harder tipping alloys. Schmidt is
| also harder than Lamy, but softer than Japanese
| counterparts.
|
| (Yes, I have a lot of pens for quite some time :) )
| kragen wrote:
| Are you saying you've been using "stone paper" for ten
| years? Or are you getting this polishing from the sizing
| agents and random contamination on real paper?
| bayindirh wrote:
| No, I get the polishing from normal, yet high quality
| paper. Think Rhodia or similar class, not Tomoe River or
| similar.
|
| I deliberately polished a nib once, on rough brown paper.
| Not Lamy, but a Pilot Metropolitan.
|
| You can polish a Lamy by regularly using it. It becomes
| evident in a couple of months, and becomes buttery smooth
| in a year. No special treatment is necessary.
| kragen wrote:
| I see, thanks! I wonder what the polishing mechanism is.
| ghurtado wrote:
| We've come around full circle, I suppose
| mmoustafa wrote:
| Scissors has entered the chat
| kragen wrote:
| That is completely unrelated.
| amarant wrote:
| This newfangled "rockpaper" really complicates the rules of my
| favourite game.
| smlacy wrote:
| Isn't this basically fiberglass?
| bennyfreshness wrote:
| Basalt is stronger than glass fibers (made from silica / quartz
| / sand), but not as strong as carbon fiber. Also, its more
| expensive than glass, but less expensive than carbon. Generally
| considered eco friendly.
|
| Interestingly where carbon fiber's failure mode is instant,
| failing catastrophically (like say chalk), basalt will be more
| gradual (like say wood), in some use cases that's an advantage.
|
| Overall though its still not mass produced, uncertain if it
| will ever reach scale.
|
| If interested in fibers and composites, the YouTube channel
| Easy Composites is really interesting / educational. For
| example you can use flax fiber.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD98L9XlCTU
| exmadscientist wrote:
| It's a very good alternative to carbon fiber.
|
| It also has one very interesting property that carbon fiber
| doesn't: it's not conductive. This means, for example, that
| you can put it in an MRI machine and get signal back. You
| can't do that with carbon fiber, which shields the return RF
| signals and gives you a dark image, but doesn't damage
| anything. Basalt weave composites are basically completely
| transparent on an MRI.
|
| (For the same reasons, it also can be microwaved
| successfully. Carbon fiber can not be microwaved. Do _not_
| microwave real carbon fiber or carbon fiber composites.)
| mring33621 wrote:
| And it's kinda pretty!
| fainpul wrote:
| It looks visually similar to woven Kevlar, which is a bit
| stronger.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevlar
| RantyDave wrote:
| Quite. I don't see why we need this in a world that already
| has Kevlar, Dyneema and Carbon.
| ggm wrote:
| Price performance. If the failure mode is slow, then my
| sport (rowing) could love this for cheaper boat
| construction which is stronger than fibreglass but cheaper
| than carbon fibre. I imagine surfboards and kayaks could
| work too.
|
| Being flexible and non conducting is useful.
| 83 wrote:
| Exactly this. I make kayaks and basalt would be the
| perfect middle ground between FG and carbon where the
| boat will get dinged up in rivers. Unfortunately its
| nearly impossible to obtain in small quantities for a
| hobbyist.
| pfix wrote:
| See uses here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber I
| am no material scientist, so cannot comment on actual facts
| why it might be better in specific cases than Kevlar,
| Dyneema or Carbon. But from experience there's a lot I
| don't know and especially in engineering there's a lot to
| consider when putting materials under stressful conditions
| that might put this in in a specific spot superior to those
| mentioned above.
| nirse wrote:
| It seems to be more heat resistant?
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I can imagine (I have no clue about this, I just watch
| manufacturing videos) that this is easier to mass produce.
| A less refined version of this is used to make Rockwool, an
| insulation material similar to fiber glass. Melt the stuff,
| extrude it, ????, profit.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6FWPTZjwLo
| jabl wrote:
| In addition to what sibling posts say, basalt is certainly
| abundant. Per Wikipedia, 90% of volcanic rock on earth is
| basalt. We're not going to run out of it.
| adrian_b wrote:
| All those burn.
|
| Basalt does not burn, so its main competition is glass
| fiber, not organic fibers.
|
| Also, those 3 mentioned by you are currently quite
| expensive in comparison with other fibers.
| nottorp wrote:
| I suppose because basalt cannot be patented. Or at least
| cannot be patented outside the US.
|
| Say, is Carbon in your statement a trademark?
| IAmBroom wrote:
| "I don't see why" has never been the bar for scientific
| advancement, fortunately. "Someone is curious" is
| sufficient, and "Someone involved sees potential" provides
| funding.
|
| Seriously, how much else of the world's technology would
| you summarily do away with, because you simply don't see
| the point?
| 83 wrote:
| Each material has its own issues. Kevlar is very difficult
| to work with (need special scissors to cut and you can't
| sand the finished product), Dyneema is sensitive to UV
| degradation. Carbon is $$$. Basalt sounds like the sweet
| spot for some of my applications but afaict it can't be
| purchased by the yard like most materials so is essentially
| unobtainium to a hobbyist who can't afford a $1k or so roll
| of material.
| kohlerm wrote:
| I think I have seen it being used in Snowboards
| superkuh wrote:
| In-situ produced basalt fiber reinforced butyl rubber is likely
| to be one of the major building materials on Mars or the
| asteroids if humans ever get there.
| jabl wrote:
| I can understand basalt, as that is abundant on Mars. But butyl
| rubber, from where do you get that? Synthetize from CO2 in the
| atmosphere might work on Mars but on an Asteroid? But if you go
| through the route of synthetizing from CO2, why butyl rubber
| and not some other hydrocarbon?
| adrian_b wrote:
| I think that silicone rubber or silicone resins would be much
| better choices than a butyl rubber for such applications.
|
| Not only silicone rubber or resins use much less CO2 and
| water for fabrication, most of their weight coming from
| quartz, but they can also be used in a much wider range of
| temperatures, compatible with that at the surface of Mars
| (i.e. including very low temperatures and high temperatures).
|
| Silicone resins reinforced with glass fiber are a material
| commonly used where a wide range of operating temperatures is
| required, so I am pretty sure that they could also be
| reinforced with basalt fiber.
| jabl wrote:
| I found a brief from a research project that studied blends
| of silicone and butyl rubber for Mars applications at
| https://science.nasa.gov/wp-
| content/uploads/2023/11/r.anyszk...
|
| Also a more detailed version https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/port
| alfiles/portal/459340626/Rubbe...
|
| But this seems to be rubber for gaskets, hoses, tires etc.
| and not fiber reinforced stuff for construction
| applications.
| kragen wrote:
| That's interesting! I think of butyl rubber as being fairly
| expensive stuff compared to building materials--here on Earth,
| construction sand costs maybe 4C/ per kilogram, while polymers
| typically cost around 200C/ per kilogram. I'm not sure how much
| to expect that higher cost to transfer to Martian and asteroid
| ISRU, because I don't really understand where it comes from.
| Are you thinking that the composite you're describing would
| have major advantages, even if it's more expensive?
| buggymcbugfix wrote:
| Next sewing project: rock pants.
| pfix wrote:
| Maybe new dress code for rock concerts
| nycdatasci wrote:
| Not rock, but silver-plated and EM-shielding:
| https://vollebak.com/products/shielding-pants
| dist-epoch wrote:
| What could regular people do with it?
|
| Oven gloves? Anti-stab vests? Gloves for working with strong
| chemicals?
| worthless-trash wrote:
| It will be used for shopping bags.
| kleiba wrote:
| Bullet-proof living room curtains.
| Modified3019 wrote:
| A reinforcing fiber to mix with concrete is one.
|
| One use that fascinates me is with foamed concrete (literally
| mixing concrete with a foaming agent) can be used to create
| cheap lightweight, insulating blocks, slabs or pours. While it
| shouldn't be considered "structural" (low compressive
| strength), it can be quite durable and withstand and dissipate
| very energetic impacts when blended with chopped fibers (like
| basalt). The exact use will effect the ultimate blend and
| resulting density.
|
| Not a typical material for sure, but I do see it come up in
| some countries when someone is having to DIY a lasting shelter.
| For a lot of situations it's quite a sensible choice, and much
| healthier than spray foams. Depending on how open/closed the
| cells end up and freeze thaw cycles, protection from water
| saturation may be needed.
|
| This combination of materials is also sold as prefabricated
| bullet stops for training, meant for retaining lead in an
| alkaline environment: https://www.terrancorp.com/sacon
| noduerme wrote:
| Is this any safer than asbestos if it gets broken up?
| pfix wrote:
| Wikipedia says yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber
|
| > The basalt fibers typically have a filament diameter of
| between 10 and 20 mm which is far enough above the respiratory
| limit of 5 mm to make basalt fiber a suitable replacement for
| asbestos.
|
| The source mentioned is a basalt fiber brand website, so not
| sure if that's enough for confidence.
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| but still it breaks and gets airborne...
| ahartmetz wrote:
| This still seems iffy, but... broken fibers usually become
| shorter, not thinner.
| tokai wrote:
| This is the exact way of behaving that facilitate
| conspiratorial thinking. You could have looked into it.
| Found sources that covers harmful effects of stone wool.
| Instead this 'just pointing out' that it might be
| problematic is lazy, dumb, and potentially destructive.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| Ad hominems are not necessary.
| vpribish wrote:
| The behavior was lazy and dumb, not the person.
| maxbond wrote:
| You want people to be curious and investigate? Then don't
| snap at them when they ask a question or express
| confusion. Respond and show your work and they'll learn
| by example. Snap at them and you'll raise the temperature
| of the discussion and make it more polarized and
| reflexive, exactly the opposite of your stated
| preference.
|
| And they aren't wrong, inhaling basalt fibers is
| dangerous and long term exposure could injure or kill
| you. It's just a different mechanism than asbestos.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicosis
|
| See for example this MSDS for basalt.
| https://mcdn.martinmarietta.com/assets/safety-data-
| sheets/ba...
|
| > The major concern is silicosis (lung disease), caused
| by the inhalation and retention of respirable crystalline
| silica dust.
|
| (NB: I do not know if or claim that basalt fibers are
| more dangerous than alternatives.)
| 0_____0 wrote:
| So does fiberglass. I would dislike working with the
| aforementioned basalt fiber, I suspect it's like fiberglass
| or carbon fibers in that you'll end up itchy later, unless
| you do a really good job with your PPE e.g. taping gloves
| to your sleeves.
| p0w3n3d wrote:
| Hmm I have fiberglass mittens for oven... Should I be
| scared?
| 0_____0 wrote:
| Are you itchy after you use them? If not then you're
| good. If they're reeeeally old then you should make sure
| they aren't asbestos.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| I sure hope so, as it's one of the go-to insulation materials
| in NL at the moment next to glass fiber wool.
| jabl wrote:
| All over the world really, AFAIU. And why not, it's non-
| flammable, rot-resistant, affordable and made from abundant
| raw materials.
|
| And yes, you should probably use gloves and a mask when
| working with it, but it's not carcinogenic like asbestos.
| cassepipe wrote:
| I hate so much working with glass/rock wool that I just
| straight up refuse the work now if the client is not ready
| to pay a bit extra for hemp or wood insulating wool.
|
| It doesn't hurt that the treatment to make them non-
| flammable and rot-resistant is quite benine and that the
| demand much less energy to manufacture.
| kragen wrote:
| What do you use, borax? That's been banned in the EU for
| superstitious reasons.
| aitchnyu wrote:
| If I become a king, my tablecloth will be basalt instead of
| asbestos and the flames from acetylene for brightest blue
| color.
| jcarrano wrote:
| The problem with asbestos is that, due to its structure, it
| keeps breaking in the longitudinal direction, making thinner
| and thinner until it is the size of chromosomes. Physical
| interference with DNA is how it causes cancer.
|
| My understanding is that basalt fibers seem to be glassy, not
| crystalline, so the breaking does not happen.
| noduerme wrote:
| My bartender told me the other night that as long as I have 2
| cups of black coffee and some red meat before drinking, it
| will coat my liver and prevent cirrhosis. I'm wondering if I
| should have him check out the mole on my arm, just to put my
| mind at ease. He would probably volunteer to be an
| experimental subject to prove this glass theory.
| adrian_b wrote:
| The source material is crystalline, but it becomes somewhat
| glassy during the fiber manufacture, when it is cooled too
| fast to crystallize completely.
|
| Asbestos is made from some silicates (pyroxenes or
| amphiboles) which contain long covalent chains of silicon and
| oxygen atoms, which are more likely to separate than to break
| transversally.
|
| Basalt also contains pyroxenes and amphiboles, but they are
| mixed with other kinds of silicates and they also have a
| different chemical composition than those of asbestos, so as
| far as it is known for now the probability of breaking into
| very thin fibers is very low for basalt fibers.
|
| It is plausible that basalt fibers should be safer, because
| unlike with asbestos, which is made from rather rare
| minerals, basalt covers a large fraction of the surface of
| the Earth, so if basalt were dangerous erosion should have
| made harmful basalt fragments abundant in the environment.
| cassepipe wrote:
| Is it correct so think that the least crystalline it ends
| up being, the more tensile strength it has ?
| adrian_b wrote:
| No, the greater tensile strength of basalt fiber versus
| glass fiber is due to it being partly crystallized,
| similarly to the greater strength of glass-ceramic
| vessels (i.e. which are made from a glass for easier
| formability, but then they are crystallized by a heat
| treatment) versus glass vessels.
|
| While there are glasses much stronger than ordinary
| glass, there are a lot of even stronger ceramics, which
| are (poly-)crystalline.
|
| Glasses have many advantages vs. other materials, e.g.
| easy processing for making any shapes, including fibers,
| no porosity, chemical resistance, optical transparency
| and so on, but strength is not one of them.
|
| The glass content of the basalt fibers is useful for
| allowing them to be drawn into fibers, by being soft
| enough for this even at a temperature under the melting
| point of the basalt.
| webstrand wrote:
| This one <https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1567289/>
| seems to show that it is at least _safer_. But inhaling large
| amounts any form of particulate is ultimately dangerous.
| codersfocus wrote:
| Isn't Rockwool the unwoven version of this?
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Had to google it to be sure, but yes, rockwool / mineral wool
| the insulation material is also made of basalt.
| Xmd5a wrote:
| > First the basalt is melted at a temperature of 1,400 degC (2550
| degF). The molten rock is then extruded through small nozzles for
| the production of filaments of basalt fibers.
|
| As a 3D-printer user, I flinched.
| endymion-light wrote:
| couldn't imagine what the spaghetti looks like
| imdsm wrote:
| Hot, bright, and hot
| binary132 wrote:
| extra spicy
| Gravityloss wrote:
| One could probably add some other minerals to lower the melting
| temperature. Like is done for regular glass. I am not a chemist
| but I would assume most likely still way too high for plastic-
| like temperatures.
| jaggederest wrote:
| As a ceramicist it'd be difficult to 3d print with because
| the kinds of temperatures you can reach even with heavily
| fluxed silica is still extremely high. I fire bisque at cone
| 04 which is approximately 1060C / 1940F and that's considered
| low fire, only extremely heavily fluxed glazes (usually pure
| frit or equivalent) melt at that level.
|
| Putting 3d printing concepts on the table, though, you could
| definitely see something like a sintered bed printer using a
| laser to print it, but then you wouldn't get anything close
| to the standard FDM style print.
| Gravityloss wrote:
| I also assume directional solidification is really
| important for basalt, like for glass fibers and others.
| That's hard to achieve for bulk objects but easy for
| fibers.
| positron26 wrote:
| Fundamentally, if the nozzle temperatures can't possibly
| withstand what they are extruding without eroding, we can
| either:
|
| - balance an exothermic reaction (self-propagating high-
| temperature synthesis) to occur just after leaving the
| nozzle
|
| - externally apply the heat with laser or plasma arc etc
|
| The limit of externally applying heating is when the heat
| flux has to be so high that some material vaporizes and
| pops. An exothermic reaction within the material overcomes
| this limitation.
| jaggederest wrote:
| The other alternative is like current state of the art 3d
| printing ceramics - you either replace some high
| percentage of the filament with clay and fire it as a
| post processing step and it burns off the plastic, or
| print a clay/water slurry directly and fire it after
| drying.
|
| But I don't think we'd end up with the basalt being very
| filamentous.
| positron26 wrote:
| If the binder that gives you something printable at low
| temperature doesn't integrate into the final result
| through chemical reaction, you are almost assuredly going
| to get a high porosity mess where the binder had to
| vaporize out.
|
| If instead the binder and precursor can melt, react, and
| expand into a solid that precipitates out because of a
| super high melting point, the expansion will ensure that
| you get a fully dense part that can be machined back
| down.
| kragen wrote:
| Felsic lavas can melt at 750deg and even below, and
| prehistoric terra cotta ceramic is often fired at such low
| temperatures.
|
| That's still quite a bit cozier than nylon or PET, of
| course.
| jaggederest wrote:
| Yes, but I think for 3d printing purposes you'd probably
| have insufficient fusion even at those temperatures. I
| print well above the melting point or you get layer
| separation. It'd definitely be a fun experiment to try
| though!
| kragen wrote:
| "Well above the melting point" usually means 60deg or
| less, which is more significant going from 195deg to
| 245deg than going from 650deg than to 710deg.
|
| These temperatures make it a significantly trickier
| engineering problem; ideally, your nozzle would retain
| its shape at those temperatures despite containing a lot
| of pressure, not be corroded by the lava you're squeezing
| through it, not be abraded by any zircon grains that
| snuck into your melt, and not oxidize on the outside from
| the temperature when it's exposed to air. I'm pretty sure
| you could make a zirconia nozzle work if it was thick
| enough, but I don't think ruby, sapphire, or diamond
| would last very long. Probably something like inconel
| would also work, but I don't think 304 or 316 would.
| jaggederest wrote:
| It'd be a lot more than 60C - the goal is to keep the
| material from cooling past the melting point by the time
| it's been deposited, and thus the important factor is the
| rate of energy loss, which is dramatically accelerated in
| a temperature differential of, say, 650C instead of say
| 145C - so I'd guess you'd want about 150C - 300C
| difference.
|
| I'd bet inconel and other high temperature alloys would
| be eroded very quickly, anything that's fluxed enough to
| melt below 1000C is going to be extremely corrosive. Hot
| molten sodium hydroxide levels of corrosive. Fun to think
| about though, a serious materials challenge for sure.
| kragen wrote:
| I'd guess that it's a lot easier to maintain the whole
| build chamber at 500deg than to maintain the hotend at
| 850deg, but I haven't tried it.
|
| Felsic lavas (and magmas) which melt at those
| temperatures do not typically contain a lot of alkali
| oxides, but they do contain some. See
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calc-
| alkaline_magma_series#/me... However, ferrous and quasi-
| ferrous alloys like inconel are among the best choices
| for alkali corrosion. For example, table 4 in Birgitte
| Stofferson's dissertation
| https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/containment-of-
| molten-n... gives an inconel corrosion rate of 1.06 mm
| per year in molten NaOH at 600deg, which happens through
| oxidation from oxygen dissolved in the melt. Monel 500
| corroded only 5.06 mm per year at 700deg.
|
| If you were trying to keep a 100mm hotend aperture within
| a +-10% tolerance, you could start with a 95mm aperture
| and replace the hotend when the aperture had expanded to
| 110mm. At 1mm/year those 15mm would be 5 days of printing
| time, which seems like a usable hotend lifetime.
| Presumably printing in lava rather than 100% NaOH would
| extend the lifetime further.
| kragen wrote:
| Yes, you could convert the basalt into glass. But basalt
| fibers have some real advantages over glass fibers, mentioned
| in the linked page:
|
| > _Basalt Woven Textile has high corrosive and chemical
| resistance to the influence of a corrosive media: salt
| solutions, acid solutions and particularly alkali liquids.
| The specific strength of basalt fiber exceeds the strength of
| alloyed steel by a factor of 2,5 and the strength of glass
| fiber by a factor of 1,5. Heat-insulating items made from
| basalt fiber combined with inorganic binding agents may be
| used by temperatures up to 700degS. In addition there is a
| range of compositions consisting of basalt rocks that have a
| higher thermal stability - up to 800degS._
| helsinkiandrew wrote:
| Basalt Fibre (bonded with recycled PET) is also being used in
| yacht construction inplace of glass fibre
|
| https://www.windelo-catamaran.com/en/recycled-and-biosourced...
| DFHippie wrote:
| So there are basalt boats floating on the not so salty Baltic.
| euroderf wrote:
| It's the Basaltic, see?
| CrimsonCape wrote:
| Looking at the web page is kinda ironic. A yacht builder
| proclaiming how much better the materials are for the
| environment. We could just build less yachts, for example.
| Nobody needs a yacht.
|
| There has to be an interesting commentary here regarding the
| necessity of productive endeavours that pay taxes and fund
| local governments and drive investors portfolios into the
| black, all funded by useless largesse.
| proee wrote:
| Yachts are not just rich-kid toys. They're useful in
| supporting ocean research, tourism, transfer vessels,
| security, etc.
|
| It's super cool to find an alternative to fiberglass.
|
| Maybe they could be used in wind turbines as well.
| conorcleary wrote:
| Well, 'research vessels' don't need to have gold-plated
| luxuries, etc.
| scarby2 wrote:
| Many people live on sail yachts. They are a very economical
| way to live.
| clort wrote:
| So technically, a yacht is any leisure vessel. ie not a
| working boat. In the UK, a yacht is usually a sailing boat
| though we also increasingly have motor yachts. In the USA
| though, a yacht is a large motor powered vessel. So, when
| an American says 'nobody needs a yacht' they generally mean
| one of those, rather than a sailboat. Not sure what context
| CrimsonCape was using.
| tidbeck wrote:
| This makes me think about Vinylon[1] and this article from
| Reuters[2]
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinylon [2]
| https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/northkor...
| kijin wrote:
| Vinalon is an organic polymer, like many other synthetic fibers
| we wear, but derived from coal instead of oil because North
| Korea has no oil.
|
| The basalt fiber OP describes is not organic at all. It sounds
| more like asbestos actually.
| comradesmith wrote:
| Yeah, but the vibes are the same as basalt textiles
| tidbeck wrote:
| The Reuters article title is "Fabric made of Stone" (as it is
| made of coal and limestone), that is why it came to mind.
| metalman wrote:
| rock wool, and other names are used for basalt fibre insulation,
| which is quite brittle, and turns to dust with very little
| manipulation must be produced useing a different chemistry and
| process, but the same bulk feed stock, which I believe is just a
| certain type of foundry slag that is dumped in the millions of
| tons per anum range, while still molten, which is where the
| incentive comes from to utilise it then and there
| k__ wrote:
| So, I can sew a battle west made of rock?!
|
| Finally \\../
| maribozu wrote:
| I'd guess within a couple of centuries, someone will figure out a
| material for jeans that doesn't tear between the legs.
| thechao wrote:
| Jeans never tear in the crotch; they just upgrade to awkwardly
| constructed kilts.
| kiney wrote:
| yet another reason I wear kilts to begin with...
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| More likely we will just remember what our ancestors knew: the
| crotch of trousers is a wear item and you should plan on
| maintaining and eventually replacing it.
| IAmBroom wrote:
| I wish, but that is not the trend in manufacturing. The LLRU
| for clothing is the garment itself, these days.
|
| (Can sew; choose not to replace buttons generally, because:
| lazy)
| meindnoch wrote:
| Asbestos 2.0?
| stuaxo wrote:
| I imagine this is bad news to breath in?
| IAmBroom wrote:
| True of all particulates.
| anshulbhide wrote:
| We manufacture cast basalt that's used in applications that have
| a lot of wear and tear. This is pretty cool to see another
| application of basalt!
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Rocks (of any type" and "wear and tear" don't really go
| together in my mind. Is this something on the order of jewel
| bushings in low speed mechanical clockwork?
|
| I can't think of a lot of applications where I'd want any sort
| of rock as my bearing material but maybe I'm thinking too big.
| Cerium wrote:
| Not bearings, this is "wear and tear" as in abrasion
| resistance. Cast basalt is used to create abrasion resistant
| pipes and flooring.
| margalabargala wrote:
| In the original article, "wear and tear" refers to
| chemical/corrosion resistance.
|
| Considering the reactivity of most textiles compared to
| something like glass, I would imagine this has tons of
| utility anywhere you might need a textile in a chemical
| application.
| guerrilla wrote:
| Just answering my own question: Is this be used for bullet proof
| vests?
|
| Heavier than carbon fiber and kevlar with lower tensile strength
| than both.
|
| So, no, not unless it's much cheaper.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Stuff like this gets used in welding blankets or clothing for
| people working around hot stuff or insulation on hot bits of
| machinery. It's supposed to be heat resistant, not strong.
|
| <insert meme about bullet proof vests not being fireproof here>
| cestith wrote:
| So you're saying dress in layers?
| euroderf wrote:
| The article fails to mention how it feels on the skin.
| xeonmc wrote:
| I have in mind other uses: how is the stiffness per mass
| compared to glass and carbon fibre, and mass manufacturability
| for small parts?
| jdc0589 wrote:
| just thinking about this makes me itch. A lot of heat wrap for
| exhaust pipes is made of this stuff. Works pretty well though,
| just not a ton of fun to work with.
| tech2 wrote:
| I had wrap from my exhaust system start to unravel at one point
| during a long journey far from home. I had to unwrap it by hand
| on the roadside sans-gloves to prevent it from ending up under
| a wheel and tearing components apart. The end result was that I
| had to find a local retailer selling duct-tape; Not for the
| car, but so I could apply segments of it to my skin to pull
| those tiny irritating fragments free from my inner forearm.
| Yeah, that itch is evil!
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| This is used in some skateboards and snowboards. Lighter weight,
| stronger, flexier than wood and doesn't splinter like carbon
| fiber
| astroflection wrote:
| I wonder how long it takes for the basalt glass to begin to
| crystalize?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devitrification#Devitrificatio...
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Rockwool is molten basalt /slag spun into wool-like fibers and
| then bound with resin
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-11-20 23:01 UTC)