Silikup®

Naturally occurring or manufactured silica fillers may present hurdles regardless of the best efforts in mining and processing. As a solution, Malvern Minerals (MM) offers Silikup®.

Silane treatment of a silica’s surface offsets the irregularities of the inherent raw mineral. Moreover, the now treated filler offers greater performance within resin systems. Current filler options consist of: fused, precipitated, amorphous, ground, nepheline syenite, recycled glass, glass flake and much more.

Treated silica fillers are now a consideration for applications once deemed inappropriate or unachievable.

Benefits include:

• Increased resistance to moisture degradation
• Improved dispersion in the polymer
• Improved tear strength
• Improved wet-out
• Increased CPVC or higher loading
• Improved electrical properties

Bubblekup®

The use of hollow spheres covers a wide range of applications from thermoplastics to industrial coatings. Due to their low density and high-strength, these materials are an optimum choice. However, their use can be problematic due to the difficulty of adhesion within a resin system.

Herein lies the need for BubbleKup® (silane treated microspheres). Through the proper surface modification of spheres with the use of organofunctional silanes and our proprietary process, these spheres can be made ambi-functional or non-functional.

Silane treatment can improve processing, performance, and durability of mineral-modified products by:

• Improving wet-out of the mineral by the polymer
• Improving adhesion between the mineral and the polymer
• Increasing mechanical properties
• Encapusulate surface imperfections of lower quality minerals
• Improving electrical properties
• Improving dispersion of the mineral in the polymer
• Enabling higher filler loading
• Increase mechanical strength
• Reducing the viscosity of the filler/polymer matrix

The choice of which silane to use in a particular application is determined by the nature of the desired benefit.

Multikup®

Maximizing filler loading, reducing resin demand while maintaining superior system properties, led Malvern Minerals to develop MultiKup®. Essentially, MultiKup® is a packing model rather than an off the shelf product. It is customizable for each unique customer’s application.

MultiKup® is designed to effectively deal with kE (ultimate particle size shape) computed with Pf (maximum packing density) so that the least amount of binder or resin can be used effecting strength plus economy. In some cases, weight as little as 10% to 15% resin can be implemented with 85% to 90% MultiKup®.

The model has been constructed so that good dielectric materials are combined with aluminum trihydrate to contribute to arc track resistance. Also, certain particle sized pigments have been included to impart some cosmetic and hiding power characteristics. Of very great importance is that the model has been surface modified appropriately to crosslink into your polymer.

We look upon this product as an excellent candidate for use in polymer concrete’s many applications both in electrical apparatuses and construction areas.