Glass fiber and asbestos are both thermal insulation materials, but they have differences in raw materials, performances, safety, uses and so on.

Glass fiber has different raw material from that of asbestos. Glass fiber is a kind of man-made material with excellent properties. It is made from waste glass through high temperature melting, drawing, winding and other processes. The main chemical composition of glass fiber is silicon dioxide and other chemical substances. Glass fiber was invented by Owens Corning Company,USAin 1940s. Asbestos is the only natural mineral fiber in the Earth. It is a natural thin and long fiber mainly composed of magnesium silicate as a chemical component. The use of asbestos goes back to the 20th century BC, but its commercial production began around 1850s.

The biggest difference between glass fiber and asbestos is that glass fiber is an environmentally friendly material, but the asbestos is a harmful material. Glass fiber is safe, because its raw material is glass. Glass products are used everywhere in our daily life, for example, our glass cups, eyeglasses, glass windows are all made from glass and they do not produce any harmful substances to our human body and environment. But if glass fiber is woven into fiberglass textiles such as fiberglass cloth, fiberglass tapes and ropes, the products will have small thorns. If we touch it without wearing gloves, we will feel uncomfortable or even pain. So when we feel glass fiber textiles, we need to wear gloves and carefully handle it. Asbestos is a harmful substance. If people expose to asbestos fiber for a long time, they will have serious health problems and possibly cause lung disease or even lung cancer. At present, more and more countries in the world have prohibited using asbestos products.

Glass fiber and asbestos have some differences in application. Glass fiber is a versatile material. It is a composite material which can be combined with chemical resins to produce fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP). FRP products can be used in airplane, aviation, automobile, ship hull, petrochemical, construction and many other fields. Glass fiber can be woven into industrial insulation fabrics. Fiberglass cloth, fiberglass mesh, fiberglass tapes and fiberglass ropes are all excellent industrial insulation fabrics which have thermal insulation, anti-corrosion, sealing and other properties and can be widely used in many industrial fields. Asbestos is also a kind of high temperature insulation, chemical resistance and sealing material, but the main application of asbestos is the excellent fireproof and thermal insulation building material. It also can be made into gasket and used as sealing material in industrial field. Because asbestos is a harmful material, at present, it has been more and more replaced by fiberglass, rockwool and other safe materials. Asbestos may still exist in some old buildings and we need carefully to deal with it.  

Besides, glass fiber has high tensile strength, so its products are strong. Asbestos is not as strong as glass fiber. In short, fiberglass is a good replacement of asbestos.