Metallic Fiber

Metallic fibers have good electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, magnetic conductivity and high temperature resistance, and the manufacturing method is relatively simple. Alfa Chemistry offers an extensive catalog of Metallic fiber products.

Features

• Metallic fibers have good mechanical properties. They not only have high breaking strength and tensile modulus, but also have good bending resistance and good toughness.
• Metallic fibers have good electrical conductivity and can prevent static electricity. For example, tungsten fibers are used as filaments for incandescent light bulbs. In addition, they are also important materials for protection against electromagnetic radiation and electrical conduction and electrical signal transmission.
• Metallic fibers have high temperature resistance.
• Some metallic fibers have good chemical corrosion resistance and are not easy to be oxidized in the air, such as stainless steel fibers, gold fibers, nickel fibers, etc.

Preparation

There are a variety of preparation methods for metallic fibers, including drawing, spinning, cutting, grinding, and plating metal sintering.

• The drawing method is used to obtain extremely fine fibers with a smooth surface and precise dimensions.
• Spinning method can produce metallic fibers directly from liquid metal.
• The cutting method uses solid metal as raw material, and uses a tool to cut it into fibrous chips, which are mainly used to produce short metallic fibers.
• The grinding method uses high-hardness materials as abrasives, and obtains metallic fibers of the required diameter by grinding the metal.
• The plated metallic sintering method can be used to prepare hollow metallic fibers.

Applications

• Textile Industry
  Metallized fabrics mixed with metallic fibers in ordinary textile fibers not only have the wearability of ordinary fabrics, but also have protective properties such as antibacterial, antistatic and anti-electromagnetic radiation. For example, stainless steel fiber textiles can be heated by applying an electric current and can also be used in cut-resistant clothing.
• Sound Energy Absorbing Material
  Due to the porous structure, fibrous materials have been widely used for noise reduction. Among them, metallic fiber materials have received great attention in noise reduction applications due to their large specific surface area, high mechanical strength, and good permeability, especially in noise control in harsh environments. [1]

(a) Schematic illustration of sintered fibrous metallic with sound incidence; (b) Test samples of sintered fibrous metal. [2]

• Reinforcing Material
  Metallic fibers can be used to reinforce polymers or plastics. This combination ensures high strength, light weight and good fatigue resistance. Continuous metallic fibers can be easily handled. Better flexural properties are observed in some metallic fiber reinforced plastic composites, which also provide higher strength and weight than fiberglass.
• Chemical Industry
  Metallic fibers can be used as filter screens for chemical agents, processing materials, waste liquid and wastewater filtration, filter screens for high-temperature dust filters, and materials that require high strength, wear resistance, and conductive conveyor belts.

References

1. Xiaoning Tang, et al. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 2017, 101, 360-380.
2. H. Meng, et al. Composites Science and Technology, 2015, 107, 10-17.

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