Glass bead and glass fiber are both valuable additives in plastic resin with subtle differences that are important to note when specifying a glass filler in engineering applications.
Glass beads, when added to plastic resins, can enhance the material’s properties, making it stronger, harder, more rigid, and temperature resistant. They also increase the material’s chemical resistance and absorption. Glass beads are best targeted in applications that require a smooth surface finish and uniform dimensional stability.
Glass fibers are the most used additives in plastic injection molding making them an economical choice to significantly improve the strength, hardness, rigidity, temperature, and chemical qualities of parts versus glass bead resins. However, glass fibers restrict the shrink rate of the base resin, which can create nonlinear shrink and exacerbate internal stress, increasing the risk of warp. For cost sensitive applications where non-uniform shrink and surface finish are not critical to end use performance, glass fiber filled resins are the better choice.