Mineral wool

Mineral wool, also known as mineral fiber, mineral cotton, mineral fibre, man-made mineral fibre (MMMF), and man-made vitreous fiber (MMVF), is a general name for fiber materials that are formed by spinning or drawing molten minerals (or "synthetic minerals" such as slag and ceramics). The nomenclature of these wool products can simply be done by putting the parent/raw material name in prefix to wool like wool from glass is glass wool, wool from rock is stone wool and so on. Specific mineral wool products are stone wool and slag wool. Europe also includes glass wool which, together with ceramic fiber, are completely man-made fibers. Applications of mineral wool include thermal insulation (as both structural insulation and pipe insulation, though it is not as fire-resistant as high-temperature insulation wool), filtration, soundproofing, and hydroponic growth medium.

History

Slag wool was first made in 1840 in Wales by Edward Parry, "but no effort appears to have been made to confine the wool after production; consequently it floated about the works with the slightest breeze, and became so injurious to the men that the process had to be abandoned". A method of making mineral wool was patented in the United States in 1870 by John Player and first produced commercially in 1871 at Georgsmarienhütte in Osnabrück Germany. The process involved blowing a strong stream of steam or air across a falling flow of liquid iron slag which was similar to the natural occurrence of fine strands of volcanic slag from Kilauea called Pele's hair created by strong winds blowing apart the slag during an eruption.