Director Ambekar E. Eknath, Ph. D Head, APED J.K. Jena, Ph. D ...

Familiarization of Fibre Reinforced Plastic Processing
Techniques and Their Maintenance
Introduction
Bikash Sarkar, Dukhia Majhi and B.C. Mohapatra
Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture
(Indian Council of Agricultural Research)
Kausalyaganga, Bhubaneswar-751 002, Orissa, lndia
Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GRP) has emerged as one of the important
class of construction material for making load bearing structures and
products. More than 35,000 products are being made out of these materials
and the applications are spread in almost all fields of engineering A thorough
understanding of the materials and their property are essential for their
effective utilization. Over the years several new materials have been
developed by man for his technological needs and comforts. As the
technology became more and more sophisticated, correspondingly the
materials used also have to be made more efficient. The conventional
materials may not always be capable of meeting the demands. New
materials are being created for meeting these performance requirements.
The glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) otherwise known as FRP is one class of
such materials developed for the modern technological applications.
FRP production in lndia is currently estimated at 35,000 tonnes which is
fabricated out of about 22.500 tonnes of resin. The application-wise
percentage break-up is summarized below:
FRP usaqe in lndia bv application
Chemical Process E ui ment 32%
Buildin /Civil En ineerin 20%
Trans ort 17%
Electrical E ui ment 12%
Defence
A riculturelA uacuiturelothers 18%
The per capita consumption of fibre-reinforced plastics in lndia is very small
in relation to the consumption in other countries. There is abundant scope for
the growth of this sector. All the resins are locally manufactured. Excess
capacity for glass fibre production exists in the country with 4 major
producers