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 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.
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.
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
Silicon nitride: > 95%
Carbon: < 1%
Free silica: < 0.5%
Polymer composites
Resin infusion / molding techniques
Advanced coatings
Metal composites
Additive manufacturing
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