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Engineering minerals for performance applications: an industrial perspective†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

J . S. Phipps
J . S. Phipps*
Affiliation:
Imerys Minerals Limited, Par Moor Centre, Par, Cornwall PL24 2SQ, UK
*
*E-mail: Jon.phipps@imerys.com
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Abstract

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To a mineralogist, minerals are defined primarily by their crystal structure and chemical composition. Many minerals of industrial importance retain this identity in their final application. For the producer and end user, the physical properties of these industrial mineral products such as size and shape distribution, refractive index, density, hardness, refractoriness and colour are of primary importance, since it is the combination of these, together with its surface chemistry, which gives the mineral its functionality. As a result, minerals which are very different in structure and origin but have many similar physical properties, such as kaolin and calcium carbonate, are often used in very similar roles and in similar applications.

Examples of mineral use in diverse applications such as paper, paints and coatings, polymers and films show how the physical properties of different minerals are exploited and engineered to provide optical, mechanical and rheological performance and to minimise cost. Industrial mineral producers have been manipulating these properties for many decades and continue to do so in search of improved performance and new applications. As new high performance materials become more commonplace, the challenge is to find new ways of transforming minerals to provide the necessary functionality for them.

Keywords

engineering mineralspaper manufacturepaintscoatingspolymersfilmsoptical propertiesmechanical propertiesrheological performance
Type
The 14th George Brown Lecture
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 1 - 16
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014

Footnotes

†

Presented at the Mineralogical Society conference ‘Minerals for Life, Edinburgh University, 2013.

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