3M Advanced Materials Division 3M™ Glass Bubbles

Imagine lighter-weight vehicles that can travel farther on less fuel. More efficient ways to drill for oil and insulate deepsea pipelines. Paint that helps keep homes cooler on hot, sunny days. In all these ways and more, 3M™ Glass Bubbles are helping a wide range of industrial sectors solve design challenges and reach new levels of performance and productivity. 3M glass bubbles are high-strength, low-density hollow glass microspheres made from soda-lime borosilicate glass. They are nonporous, chemically stable and virtually insoluble in water or oil. Strong enough to survive processing, they can be incorporated into a wide range of polymers for density reduction. And the benefits of 3M glass bubbles go far beyond lightweighting: the inherent properties of these microspheres provide a number of unique performance and processing advantages. - Weight reduction - Dimensional stability - Thermal insulation - Reduced resin demand - Cycle time reduction - Solar reflectivity - Low dielectric constant