FEICA 2017 Conference and EXPO
Forte Village, Sardinia, Italy, 13 - 14 - 15 September 2017

Presentation Abstract

Efficient processing with low moisture calcium carbonates

Calcium carbonate is a key component of adhesives and sealants. For long time considered as mere extenders, ground calcium carbonates (GCCs) are now evolving into truly functional fillers. Moisture curing adhesives and sealants are even more innovative: easy to use and environmentally friendly, they are enabling new applications every day.

For calcium carbonate producers, moisture has always been part of the story. During production, GCCs are invariably dried thoroughly. However, calcium carbonate naturally picks up humidity from the environment, even more so for ultrafine materials. Surface treatment is effective to reduce moisture pickup, with additional benefits of improved mechanics and dispersibility, but often this is not enough. Adhesive and sealant formulators must dry the calcium carbonate, sacrificing energy, time and process complexity. Moisture scavengers help to further extend storage stability, but that come at a cost and lowers the environmental friendliness of the product. Novel calcium carbonates allow the industry to move out of this “dry, pick-up, dry again” loop. Innovative, but affordable, GCCs have such low moisture that physical drying can be eliminated and moisture scavenger can be sensibly reduced. This allows the industry to deliver efficient, economic and environmentally friendly adhesives to the market of today.