Fiberglass and Glass Technology: Energy-Friendly Compositions and Applications

This detailed overview of fiber, float and container glass technology emphasizes eco-friendly compositions, applications and manufacturing processes. It consists of two sections: continuous glass fiber technology and soda-lime-silica glass technology.

Dr. Wallenberger completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University in Graz, Austria (1954) and pursued graduate research at Fordham University in New York, where he received his M.S. degree (1956) in pilot process research and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (1958) in the chemistry of polycyclic aromatic carbon precursors. He was an Instructor in Chemistry at Fordham (1957-58) and a Research Fellow at Harvard (1958-59). He joined Du Pont Fibers, Pioneering Research Laboratory, in 1959, where he studied, for more than three decades, the relationships between structures, properties and value-in-use of new materials, and contributed to the commercialization of new fibers, polymers and composites through intrapreneurial research, project management and technology transfer. Dr. Wallenberger retired from DuPont in 1992, became a Research Professor (Materials Science) at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1992, a Visiting Professor (Textiles) at the University of California in Davis in 1994. He joined PPG in Pittsburgh as Staff Scientist in 1995.

Dr. Wallenberger is a fiber scientist, an expert in the fields of advanced glass, ceramic and carbon fibers, single crystal fibers, whiskers and nanotubes, natural fibers, advanced polymers and fiber-reinforced composites. He is also a specialist in technology assessment and technology transfer. At the University of Illinois, he jointly taught successive project-based team courses with a member of the business faculty on the principles of organizing new high tech businesses. At the University of California he taught textile fibers and manufacture, and a University-wide course on the benefits of plastics to the society and their impact on the environment. Between 1992 and 1995, he was a consultant and assisted entrepreneurial start-up businesses with organizational advice, business strategy and license negotiations.

Since 1957, Dr. Wallenberger has contributed 152publications including journal articles, books, book chapters and patents to the scientific and technical literature. His publications appeared in selected technical journals, including Science, the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, the American Ceramic Society, Applied Physics, Materials Letters, Materials Processing and Manufacturing Science, Chemical Vapor Deposition, Angewandte Chemie, Organic Chemistry and Polymer Chemistry. More recently, his publications described the design of environmentally friendly fiberglass compositions (Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 2004, Ceramic Transactions, 2004, and Glastechnische Berichte - Glass Science and Technology, 2004), the structure of glass fibers (Science, 1995), rapid prototyping directly from the vapor phase (Science, 1994), pure carbon fibers from the vapor phase (Science, 1993) and melt spinning of amorphous alumina fibers (Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 1992). Ten of his original journal papers were reprinted by other journals since 1962, mostly in the form of a translation into another language.

Dr. Wallenberger has published three books, "Natural Fibers, Polymers and Composites" (Kluwer, 2003), "Advanced Fibers, Plastics and Composites" (MRS, 2002) and "Advanced Inorganic Fibers" (Kluwer, 1999). He wrote a chapter on "Glass Fibers" (Handbook on Ceramics and Glasses, 2005), two chapters on "Reinforcing Fibers" (ASM Composites Handbook, 2001), a survey of "Melt-Spinning of Amorphous Alumna Fibers" (American Ceramic Society Bulletin, 1991) and the first review of "The Chemistry of Heat Resistant Polymer Fibers" (Angewandte Chemie, 1964).

Among many professional honors, Dr. Wallenberger received the Environmental Respect Award from Du Pont. He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, and a member of the American Chemical Society, the Material Research Society, and the Association of Harvard Chemists.

Dr. Paul A. Bingham received a BEng (Hons) in 1995 fromthe Department of Engineering Materials at the University of Sheffield. Also at the Department of Engineering Materials, one of the world's premier glass research groups, he subsequently investigated the optical properties, the redox behavior, and the structure of iron-containing silicate glasses, and received his PhD in 1999.

Between 1999 and 2003 he was a Technologist at Glass Technology Services Ltd (GTS), the research arm of the British Glass Manufacturers Confederation, and carried out a wide range of research and project management functions related to the development of new glasses. He reformulated existing container glasses for environmental benefit and energy reduction, and giver glass compostions which he developed have achieved full-scale production. In 2004, he took a position as Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Immobilization Science Laboratory (ISL), University of Sheffield, where he researches composition-structure-property relations for a large range of glass systems with the aim of providing environmental benefit. He has developed novel silicate, borosilicate, phosphate and borophosphate glasses with potential applications in waste immobilization and commercial glassmaking.

Dr. Bingham has nine publications in refereed journals including several papers in the field of glasses for environmental benefit and an invited review paper on the vitrification of toxic wastes. He has also published several conference papers and other articles in the field. Dr. Bingham is a member of the Society of Glass Technology, where he is Secretary of the Basic Science and Technology Committee. He has also undertaken consultancy work for the optical communications industry.