Nuenz manufacturers silicon nitride fibres, the only commercial manufacturer worldwide.

Advanced Additives

Advanced, high-performance additives lead to more significant performance increases in composites than regular fillers.  Silicon nitride fibres are ultra-fine, high-performance fibres that add superior performance to composites and coatings at very low additions - typically 0.1-0.5% of the final product.

Silicon Nitride Fibres

Nuenz manufactures high tech fibres onsite at its manufacturing facilities in New Zealand.  Nuenz is the only commercial manufacturer of silicon nitride fibres worldwide, supplying the fibres to its customers and onsite composite test facility.  Nuenz manufacturers a variety of grades of silicon nitride fibre to meet customer needs for both performance and value.

Silicon nitride is a high strength ceramic with high chemical resistance.  Silicon nitride also has a variety of functional properties.

The table below provides properties of our evaluation grade of silicon nitride fibre.  The evaluation grade is typically 80% fibre by volume and is at least 95% chemically pure.  A safety data sheet is available for download from our website and covers all grades of silicon nitride fibre.  

Nuenz silicon nitride fibres under a microscope

Fibres for infusion

Nuenz ultrafine fibres are suitable for infusion processes such as vacuum infusion and resin transfer molding.  The size of the fibres means that they can pass through laminate weaves and infuse throughout the fibre laminate.  The low addition of silicon nitride fibre ensures that the viscosity of the infusion resin is maintained, ensuring infiltration of the parts.  

Nuenz silicon nitride fibre dispersion

High performance fibres

The performance of silicon nitride fibre in composites is comparable to carbon nanotubes, graphene and silicon carbide whiskers.  All of these materials have similar performance curve in polymers and metals.  To achieve peak performance, the fibres must be uniformly dispersed. Nuenz pairs both high-performance fibres with world-leading dispersion technology.

The chart below shows a performance curve for silicon nitride fibre in marine-grade epoxy.  

Additions of 0.15-0.3% are typical in polymer applications and 0.5% in metal composites.  Silicon nitride fibres have high-temperature stability and survives processing in aluminium composites over 600°C.  The fibres are very chemically stable and can withstand hot, concentrated acid.

line graph showing flexural strength increase using Nuenz silicon nitride fibres.

Safety Data Sheet

v2.2 - 31 March 2020
Download

Morphology

Fibre by weight/volume: >80% (standard grade)

Fibre diameter
d10: 0.12µm
d50: 0.36µm
d90: 0.66µm

Fibre length
d10: 3µm
d50: 15µm
d10: 28µm

Remainder: Particulate Si3N4

d10: 0.06µm
d50: 0.15µm
d90: 0.28m  

Composition

Silicon nitride: > 95%

Carbon: < 1%

​Free silica: < 0.5%

Applications Include

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Polymer composites

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Resin infusion / molding techniques

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Advanced coatings

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Metal composites

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Additive manufacturing