INNOVATION | CARBON BLACK
and improved water resistance, thus improving quality and uniformity,” Ellett says. There are also important health and safety benefits for workers at the plant. Addressing sustainability issues, Ellett takes a slightly different tack from others. “In April 2019 we switched from truck to barge transport for ship- ment of our conductive carbon black grades from our Willebroek plant to the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, thus reducing CO2
40% for the considered transportation leg,” she says. “A rainwater recovery system has also been installed at the plant, in a continuous effort for resources management.”
Above: Automated packaging of conductive carbon black at the Imerys Graphite & Carbon plant in Belgium
carbon solutions are proving well suited to adding electrical and thermal conductivity to polymers to meet industry mega-trends such as metal replace- ment, light-weighting and the spread of 5G technology.” Ellett describes Ensaco as a “cutting-edge conductive carbon black, with a winning combina- tion of high purity, high structure and low surface area, which guarantees low moisture pick-up as well as easy dispersion.” She says this set of properties makes it possible to reach high levels of conductivity at low loadings and is a key benefit for a compound’s mechanical and flow properties. This April, Imerys Graphite & Carbon opened an
application laboratory dedicated to graphite and conductive carbon black at Bironico in Switzerland. Ellett says the new laboratories, together with a new quality control laboratory that was opened last month at the Imerys conductive carbon black production facility at Willebroek in Belgium, will strengthen the company’s analytical capability and competences. A fully automated packaging line was also installed at Willebroek earlier this year. “Through automatisation and optimised packag- ing technology, the individual packages undergo less manipulation and stress, higher pallet stability
Tackling dispersion The performance of carbon black in any application is determined both by its own properties as well as the dispersion level in the resin matrix. The most important physical and chemical properties include particle size and surface area, structure, porosity and surface chemistry. The dispersion level achieved in thermoplastic resins is strongly influ- enced by carbon black properties, polymer formulation, compounding equipment and process- ing conditions. Farrel Pomini says its Farrel Continuous Mixer (FCM) is a proven compounding technology for processing carbon black. Features such as its non-intermeshing, counter-rotating rotor design provide various benefits, including efficient shear, tight temperature control, the ability to accept high filler loadings, and high output rate. It recently collaborated with Birla Carbon on tests using a Farrel Pomini CPeX laboratory compact processor incorporating continuous mixing technology at the Farrel Pomini Process Laboratory at Ansonia in Connecticut, US. For many high-end consumer applications, very high jetness with a blue undertone, a high surface smoothness/gloss, and UV stability are key desir-
emissions by around
PHOTO: IMERYS GRAPHITE & CARBON
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