PBO Fibre Technical Information

Phenylene benzobisoxazole (PBO) was first developed in the 1980’s and is the world’s strongest man-made fibre. It is also the first organic fibre whose cross-sectional strength outperforms both steel and carbon fibre. It is manufactured by Toyobo™ under the brand name ZYLON®. PBO is a rigid-rod isotropic crystal polymer that is spun by a dry-jet wet spinning process.

PBO fibre has the following key characteristics for thermal applications:

• Excellent strength & modulus.
• Good flame resistance.
• Excellent thermal stability.
• Excellent creep resistance.
• Good chemical resistance.
• Whilst PBO does not decompose until temperatures of 650°C are reached, its tensile strength weakens at far lower  temperatures and further still in humid environments.
• Very poor UV resistance.
• Poor compressive strength.
• Strength loss in exposure to strong acids.

Please click here  to download Toyobo’s for their PDF for general and technical information.

*ZYLON® is a registered trademark of TOYOBO Co. Ltd.