B&Q "composite" handling instructions

Never seen it myself, but would think with your description of where in the store it is, that it could be an alloy containing things that give off fine dust or something similar. The extra handling care could be when the material is being cut or adding chemicals to it.

You would really need to read the label to get all the facts correct though.

Not like the "composites" they use in F1 cars etc - ie. carbon fibre type stuff? Aren't these quite fragile if bent in the wrong way etc?

Or am I completely wrong?

Could be. When I sawed it it went very easily, producing surprisingly fine dust, and what looked like fine (longitudinal) fibres breaking away from the body of the material.

I bought only because it fitted my decorative purposes, but it seems like quite serious stuff, whatever it is.

I would suspect it's glass reinforced plastic of some sort. Nylon, or polyester, or...

Composite means "some stuff in other stuff" or "reinforcement in a matrix" to be posh. If the reinforcement is stiff (e.g. carbon fibre), then you get a high stiffness or high strength material. If the reinforcement is simply a powder, then you get something that's primarily cheap. If the reinforcement has short fibres (cotton fluff, asbestos) then you get a bit of extra strength and a ot of extra cheap.

I would guess that this material is a mineral filler powder, maybe a short fibre, in some plastic resin. There's probably a dust hazard if you machine it.

If that is the case shouldn't they have a MSDS available?

sponix

Probably - B&Q are generally pretty good on such things.

Carbon fibre isn't stiff, it just has a high tensile strength.

Probably a glass fibre reinforced plastic - so the dust from cutting it will give you silicosis and if it breaks it will have nasty jaggy edges.

Probably a resin/glass compoisite. You can get sharp shards and dust and splinbters off it.

True, but a carbon fibre _composite_, is incredibly stiff if moulded appropiately, for its weight.