AUK company has begun to sell a polycrystalline wool fibre (Alphawool) for use at temperatures in excess of 1300℃. The Thermal Ceramics business of Windsor-based Morgan Advanced Materials (MAM) makes the wool using a sol-gel process applied to an aqueous spinning solution. It claims the resulting fibre has an alumina content of between 96 and 97%, and has a number of desirable properties: well-defined dimensions; uniform fibre diameters; chemical and thermal stability; low linear shrinkage; low thermal mass and good thermal insulation; high tensile strength; low (less than 2%) content of non-fibre alumina particles (known as shot), which otherwise reduce the thermal insulation; light weight; high resilience. Further, the material does not contain a binder and so does not emit fumes or odour on its first use.
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