ARTICLES

Everyone is talking about nanoparticles these days. We hear about the exciting new uses opening up for minerals in the nanoparticle size range, from revolutionary new sunscreens to self-cleaning windows, to amazing new uses inside the human body. It is almost like a...

When we think fillers, we think of something added to cheapen or extend something else. Like adding breadcrumbs to your meatballs or kaolin to your soap bar. But there's another type of filler we seldom think about - the recycled version of the same item. In the glass...

What exactly is clay? So you've heard that some minerals like kaolin and bentonite are called clays while others are not clays. What exactly does this mean? What makes one mineral a clay and another not? It all started when folks tried to explain the...

Today we are discussing talc. What is talc exactly and why should we use it? Talc, also called “talcum powder” is not just useful for baby’s bottoms. It is also an industrial mineral used in a variety of industries, from paint to ceramics and cosmetics to soaps. The...

A few years ago, Hunstman announced they were closing their titanium dioxide plant in South Africa. This put the industry into a bit of a spin. Paint chemists suddenly had their hands full scrambling to approve alternatives for their product range. Then just when they...

Have you ever thought about the shape of different mineral particles, and what impact the particle shape has on a particular mineral's performance? In many industries where minerals are used as fillers or opacifiers, the shape of the particle is very...

  Particle size explained: Mesh vs Microns, D50 and D98       Understanding particle size data on a data sheet can be challenging. Not everyone measures things the same way!   The terms, for a start can be confusing. Sometimes one sees Mesh sizes,...

We often hear the word "hydrophobic" bandied around. Well surprise, surprise, it means just what you think it means – water-hating. Or to be more precise; "tending to repel or fail to mix with water". The opposite is a word used less often: hydrophylic. Something...

[2023 Updated] Working with fine powders can literally mean a lot of dust up your nose. Do you sometimes feel this problem is getting out of hand? Dust in the air usually means workers need to wear dust masks, which can cause discomfort and dissatisfaction. The number...

Let's discuss calcined kaolin. What is it and why should we use it in our paints, paper, plastics, rubber and ceramics? Naturally-occurring kaolin is known as "hydrous kaolin" because it contains water within its crystal lattice. This water cannot be removed by simply...

So you’re a paint producer, or an adhesive producer, or you produce paper, inks, soap or ceramics, or maybe even you are a producer of a mineral like kaolin – and your customer brings up that dreaded YELLOWNESS objection: ”Your product has a yellow undertone”....

Get this: you buy your raw materials by weight but you sell your product by volume. So if you make paint, adhesives and inks (even shampoo or chillie sauce), you must keep converting weight to volume. How do we do this? This is when you pick up the data sheet and look...