The basalt fiber: research and application in product and textile design

From the earth’s bowels, basalt is naturally generated . We all know basalt for its widespread use in roads, buildings, sculptures, and objects . From basaltic rocks, through industrial processes, a continuous fibrous f ilament is obtained. Basalt fiber is a natural mineral fiber characterized by excellent chemical, physical, and mechanical properties, increasingly used in high-performance, technological industrial fields. Due to its inherent sustainability, in the current scenario characterized by increasingly stringent environmental regulations, it appears advantageous to use this f iber compared to other fibers such as glass fiber and carbon fiber. In this paper, an approach to material research on basalt fiber straddling art and design is proposed, with the aim of exploring the aesthetic value of the material, proposing an extension of its use in areas where, in addition to performance, perceptual values such as color, texture, and the skin of the textile material are also important . The results obtained encourage the prediction that this material can become to all intents and purposes one of the materials of the future, to be used in even very different textile design contexts, characterized by high performance but also high attention to the aesthetic aspect