Rubber Industry

Kaolin is an ideal additive to rubber due to its anisometric ‘booklet’ particle structure which adds strength and stiffness to the product through enhanced stress transfer. Kaolin clay is a low cost substitute for precipitated silica and carbon-black in certain compounds without sacrificing physical properties.Kaolin clay is used to improve the tensile and modulus of ground calcium carbonate based rubber compounds. ‘Soft’ kaolin clays have larger grain sizes and are used where high loadings (for economy) and faster extrusion rates are more important than strength. ‘Hard’ kaolin clays with smaller particle sizes impart high modulus, high tensile strength, stiffness, and good abrasion resistance to rubber compounds. 80% of the clays used in rubber production are Air Float hard clays, which are air separated to remove impurities. Surface treated hard clays provide even better reinforcement than untreated clays and has the capability to substitute carbon-black in certain applications.

Special functionalities such as improved air-permeability can be imparted in hydrous kaolin clays through the process of delamination. Calcined kaolin or water washed clay, is used in certain applications such as wire and cable manufacturing as it provides good reinforcement, better colour and higher volume resistivity.

The benefit of using Asteroid Hydrous Kaolin in rubber are as follow

Hydrous kaolin : Aster 80 Powder