Plyglas Flat Panels

Plyglas panels are fibreglass panels manufactured using a variety of cores and laminates which will best suit your intended use.

They have a large variety of uses including motorhomes and truck bodies.

The properties of your final panel designed and manufactured by Fibreglass Developments Limited, vary according to the materials used in production.

Panel Finishes

An extremely high gloss, smooth surface is available on either one or both faces, and can be ordered under the following abbreviations.

XMO           High gloss one side, nothing on back

XM1           High gloss one side, textured laminate

                  on back

XM2           High gloss on both sides

Non-Skid    Sand filled gelcoat surface for flooring, decks, etc

Cores

A wide variety of cores are available - depending on your required end use.

Fibreglass only (no core)

Plywood (3mm - 22mm)

Insulated foam only, polystyrene, or polyurethane

Insulated structural ply/foam/ply 20-?mm

High Tech cores such as Balsa, Honeycombs, PVC foams for light weight and high strength specialised applications

Sizes

Fibreglass Developments have the largest flat panel mould in New Zealand - allowing for production of panels measuring up to 15 metres x 3.6 metres. Panels are precut to your exact requirements prior to despatch.

Insulated Panels

Fibreglass Developments uses a unique system which bonds the ply skins to a polyurethane core with a density gradient across its width. Foam is injected between the ply skins while locked in a high strength press.  This results in the density of the foam increasing from the centre outwards, to where it forms a high strength bonding layer to the skin.

Colour

Almost any shade of any colour can be incorporated into the product during manufacture by pigmenting the gelcoat used. Costs are therefore reduced by no further finishing or painting. Soluble dyes can be used if a translucent product is desired.

We do not however, recommend dark colours. These produce excessive heat on the surface which can lead to the surface deteriorating and showing print through, where the Resn matrix cures more and shrinks, bringing the fibres to the surface. In extreme cases delamination can occur.

We have had a problem arise where a customer had taken our standard white panels, fitted them to a truck body, and then painted them dark blue, almost black. The resultant temperature increase on the surface and the temperature differential across the laminate has resulted in some horrible cracks arising over much of the dark painted areas and some delamination.

Fibreglass laminates have a coefficient of expansion almost three times that of steel! The laminate on our Plyglas panels is only 1.5 - 2 mm thick, and when white remains fairly stable as it is well bonded to the ply. Tests conducted by DRI in 1982, revealed that the expansion of a Plyglas panel with even laminates both sides, is only marginally greater than the expansion rate of the ply when heated.

If you then apply a dark paint to the laminated surface, everything can go wrong. In direct sunlight surface temperatures can exceed 80ºC! All that will be working on the Gelcoat underneath, which is being restrained by the laminate, which in turned is being restrained by the ply. It's on a hiding to nothing and something's got to give! The gelcoat being approximately twenty microns thick and brittle is the first to go.

Please - if you intend to paint panels, talk with us first so we can work out the best plan of attack to meet your customers needs. We DO NOT OFFER WARRANTY on panels that have been painted dark without our knowledge. Even with our knowledge it will be at your risk.