Glass fibre's versatility finds its use in a range of applications. These are just a few of its uses: as a reinforcer for plastic and concrete; in insulation for buildings; in the hulls of ships, fuselages of aircraft and walls of petrol tankers, and in everyday products such as ladders and fishing rods.

Glass fibre optics are used in telecommunications applications where they have greater capacity, transmission speed and efficiency and are cheaper to maintain than other cables.

It is produced in crucibles made of PGMs and their alloys which are resistant to the high temperature and corrociveness of molten glass.