ABRASIVES
Abrasive grains and powders are used in the manufacture of a wide array of industrial products, including bonded and coated abrasive products such as cutting discs, grinding wheels, drill points, and abrasive papers.
Typical Products
- Aluminum Oxide (Brown, White, Ceramic-Coated, Pink, or Single-Crystal)
- Zirconium Alumina
- Black Silicon Carbide
- Green Silicon Carbide
Blasting
Blasting is a common industrial method to clean and prepare materials for further finishing or surface treatments, such as painting. For example, blasting is routinely used in the preparation for painting of metal ranging in size from small automotive parts to the enormous hulls of oceangoing ships.
POLISHING
Fine grains and micro-powders are used in a wide array of industrial applications, such as in the manufacture of metals, glass, and precious stones.
REFRACTORY
Industrial minerals that can withstand extremely high temperatures and abrasion are used in the construction of furnaces, kilns, incinerators and reactors, in the production of refractory bricks and castables used in the glass and cement industries, as well as in the production of steel, iron and other metal products.
CERAMICS
Industrial minerals are a major component in the manufacture of many advanced ceramics products including, for example, ceramic crucibles, tundish nozzles, ballistic protection product, and jet engine turbine blades.
FLOORING
Industrial minerals are used throughout the flooring industry. Aluminum oxide helps create far more durable and scratch-resistant ceramic tile and hardwood floors. Glass beads add reflective safety markings to highways and airport runways. And steel shot is used to help prepare concrete for resinous floor coatings.