Soda Feldspar for Ceramics Industry
Soda feldspar is used as a fluxing agent in all kinds of ceramics & glazes. In manufacturing ceramics, sodium feldspar is the second most important ingredient after clay. Since feldspar does not have a strict melting point it melts gradually over a range of temperatures. This greatly facilitates the melting of quartz and clays and, through appropriate mixing, modulates this important step of ceramic making. Albite feldspars are used as fluxing agents, to form a glassy phase at low temperatures, and as a source of alkalies and alumina in glazes. They improve the strength, toughness, and durability of the ceramic body and cement the crystalline phase of other ingredients, softening, melting and wetting other batch constituents. In the flooring sector, feldspar is the main constituent in the body composition. It is used as a flux, lowering the vitrifying temperature of a ceramic body during firing and forming a glassy phase. Surface tension pulls the remaining solid particles together, giving a densification of the ceramic body. With rising temperature the alkalis become more active and dissolve the clay particles and then the free silica. In tableware, feldspar gives a good fusibility for a product without defects. In the sanitaryware sector, the use of soda feldspar within vitreous ceramic bodies is used here to illustrate this optimization process.
Soda Feldspar for Glass Industry
Both Sodium and Potassium feldspar is used in the glass industry. Soda feldspar is an important ingredient in the manufacture of glass and an important raw material as well, because it acts as a fluxing agent, reducing the melting temperature of quartz and helping to control the viscosity of glass. The alkali content in feldspar acts as flux, lowering the glass batch melting temperature and thus reducing production costs. But sodium feldspars are primarily added to glass batches for their alumina content, which improves hardness, durability, and resistance to chemical corrosion. The raw material for glass consists of silica sand, soda ash (sodium carbonate) and limestone (calcium carbonate). Albite feldspar powder adds certain qualities to the process. Alumina provides hardness, workability, and strength, and makes glass more resistant to chemicals and more suitable for pressing. Fluxes reduce the melting temperature so that less energy is used and decrease the amount of soda ash needed. Sodium feldspars powder is used in the production of flat glass (windows, car glass…) but also container glass. They provide us with a clear view of our television and computer screens, car headlamps, fluorescent tubes, perfume bottles, soda bottles, pharmaceutical or laboratory glass
Soda Feldspar for Paints
Sodium feldspar powder is used as a filler in the paints & coatings industry. Soda feldspars powder is also used as fillers and extenders in applications such as paints, plastics and rubber. Beneficial properties of feldspars include good dispersibility, chemical inertness, stable pH, high resistance to abrasion, low viscosity at high filler loading, interesting refractive index and resistance to frosting. The products used in such applications are generally fine-milled grades.
Soda Feldspar for Enamel frits and glazes
Sodium feldspar enters in the enamel composition, assuring the absence of defects and the neatness of the end product: enamel frits, ceramic glazes, ceramic tile glazes, sanitaryware, tableware, electrical porcelain and giftware to name just a few.
Other uses: in plastics & rubber industries as a filler, in mild abrasives, urethane, welding electrodes (production of steel), latex foam, as a welding rod coating, road aggregate…