Basalt Fiber: Basalt fiber in USA

As we have already mentioned, the largest producers of basalt fiber are located in Russia, Ukraine and China. There are some small producers all around the world but they produce small quantity of poor quality fiber for needs of local industries.

But inspite of the fact that there are no producers of basalt fiber in Europe and USA, this product is easily available there. Chinese and Ukranian producers participate in some project in these areas, and Kamenny Vek (Russia) works there via its distributors who keep permanent stock of different basalt fiber products at their warehouses located in Belgium, Germany and USA. It is obviously that working via distributors gives some advantages to customers:

Instant delivery instead of 2 to 3 months lead time;
Possibility to place orders not only for containers but also for small batches;
Low transportations cost for small batches;
Easy possibility to get samples;
No problem with custom clearance;
No need to arrange delivery from producers;
Easy document circulation;
Easy payments;
Communications with fellow-citizens;
Much more effective customer and technical support.

Here is extracts from articles about these distributors:

USA

E.T. Horn Company Earns Exclusive Distribution Territory for Kamenny Vek Basalt Fiber Product...

Publication: Business Wire

Date: Monday, August 6 2007

LA MIRADA, Calif. -- The E.T. Horn Company, a leading distributor, supplier, marketer, and manufacturer of specialty chemicals, announced that it has been selected by Moscow-based Kamenny Vek to represent and distribute their proprietary basalt fiber throughout North America. Kammeny Vek is the world's leading producer of basalt fibers used for composite reinforcement, civil engineering, thermal insulation, and plastics applications.

The Advanced Materials Group of southern California-based E.T. Horn specializes in providing products for the high performance composites industry including epoxy resins, polyurethane resins, and low-density microspheres. E.T. Horn's relationship with Kamenny Vek marks the first time the company has represented a Russian-based company.

"Our R&D team conducted a worldwide quest to find the highest quality basalt, and we weren't surprised to find it in Russia," said Jay Fitzpatrick, E.T. Horn vice president. "Kamenny Vek's new state of the art manufacturing plant is equipped for producing the world's best quality basalt fibers that have the highest properties, so we definitely have a winning combination."

Historically, obtaining high quality basalt fiber has been cost prohibitive and logistically difficult to source for US manufacturers. "Customer demand caused us to find a top quality, high value source of basalt fiber that our customers can use as replacements for asbestos, chemical resistant glass and other specialty fibers in many applications. Our customer base will soon discover how this new product outperforms common E glass and is close to S glass in terms of reinforcement properties," Fitzpatrick remarked. "So now, it's up to us to deliver. Our resolve is to carry a huge inventory at our La Mirada (CA) headquarters, and as need expands, keep our satellite warehouses supplied in Portland, Houston and Baltimore."

Until now, Kamenny Vek products have only been distributed within Europe and portions of Asia, so the new arrangement with E.T. Horn broadens their horizons. "We're extremely pleased and satisfied to secure our business arrangement with E.T. Horn," said Dr. Boris Mislavsky, Kammeny Vek Director of Strategic Development and Global Marketing. "They have a tremendous, long-standing reputation in America, so when you couple that with our superior product, we expect our revenues to increase dramatically."

About The E.T. Horn Company -

The E.T. Horn Company is one of the nation's largest distributors, marketers and manufacturers of raw materials and chemicals for use in coatings, building materials, elastomers, lubrication, nutrition, cosmetics, personal care, and food products. Founded in 1961, the company has focused on providing formulation solutions, superior customer service and technical expertise in distributing products from only the finest manufacturers. For additional information contact the company at 800-442-HORN or visit www.ethorn.com.

Europe

BASALTEX and basalt fibres

BASALTEX , Kamenny Vek's European distributor from Belgium, has spent significant energy to gain fully documented insight in the BCF fiber properties through direct contact with the BCF producing centers and through physical and chemical analysis work, which is performed mainly at the University of Ghent, Belgium, at the MTM department of the University of Leuven, and the INISMA Institute in Mons, all in Belgium.

Woven BCF fabrics, straight from the loom, are unstable, easily damaged when handled, cannot be stitched for a seam of any significant strength, show broken fibers when sharply folded and are irritating to the skin when manipulated . Basaltex developed a proprietary basic fabric stabilization coating process which resolves the mentioned issues, has the M1 class, doesn’t generate toxic smoke when heated to high temperatures and is not degrading in any way the fire resistant properties of the starting BCF fabric.

Basaltex adds value

Basaltex’ s R&D directions are further characterization of BCF fibers in composites, maximalising Young’s Modulus with appropriately sourced BCF, work in the filaments sizings area.

Basaltex intensively listens to the customer’s needs and aims at fulfilling these as fast and effectively as possible. Good understanding of BCF fibers has been and continues to be gained. These fibers, alone or combined with others, go through the first transformation step, producing: e.g. wovens and nonwovens, braids, knits and chopped fibers. Coatings can be applied for out-door use, for oils and greases resistance, for impermeability to water and permeability to air, for anti-slip and anti-soiling, for continuous skin contact, for high abrasion resistance, for heat insulation through intumescence, for colored or fluorescent appearances,etc. The coating compounds are formulated to have characteristics such as the M0 or M1 ignitability class and low smoke generation. Silicone coatings in particular on BCF fabrics give products with very high abrasion resistance, M0&F0 fire classifications and yet flexibility.