Application of fillers

Fillers have a wide range of applications and have a great impact on the performance of the filled materials. Composite materials composed of fillers are widely used. The main applications are as follows:
(1) Fillers for rubber: Whether natural rubber or synthetic rubber, the amount of fillers added to most rubber processed products accounts for 10~50% of their total weight. The types of applications almost cover all filler types, and the main method of addition is mixing. Different additives and addition amounts are selected according to the different requirements for rubber products such as wear, elongation, hardness, tensile strength, permanent deformation, tear strength, and elasticity to improve their performance and economy;
(2) Fillers for plastics: Fillers for plastics can be divided into two categories, one is incremental fillers and the other is reinforcing fillers. The former mainly reduces costs, but the addition of fillers changes the temperature dependence of the density, hardness, elastic modulus, and mechanical properties of thermoplastics. The application of reinforcing fillers, in addition to reducing costs, mainly improves the strength and elongation of plastics and impact strength. Therefore, the reasonable selection of the types and amounts of incremental fillers and reinforcing fillers and their matching can produce dual effects;
(3) Fillers for papermaking: In order to improve paper quality and reduce costs in the papermaking industry, fillers that are basically insoluble in water should be added to the pulp to improve the printing performance, flexibility, strength, etc. of the paper. The addition amount is 1~40%. The main varieties are calcium carbonate, etc.;
(4) Fillers for coatings: Fillers play the role of skeleton in coatings, increase the thickness of the coating, reduce the cost of coatings, and give coatings certain special properties, such as corrosion resistance, durability, and low volume expansion. The main varieties are calcium carbonate, mica, silica, kaolin, etc.