Glass bubble,Hollow glass microspheres , Glass sphere beads, Manufacturer & suppliers

This new type of hollow glass microspheres are low in density and high in strength, which are able to resist high temperature and acid / alkali corrosion, and show low thermal conductivity and nice electrical insulation.

Hollow glass microsphere is a cross-functional frontier material that can be added to a variety of substrate materials to improve their performances (such as weight-reduction) and environmental benefits (such as building thermal insulation).

Especially under the background of striving to achieve the “carbon peak” and “carbon neutralization” goal, researching and promoting the application of multi-specification hollow glass microspheres in building paints, industrial coatings, cementing slurry, sealants and adhesives, modified plastics, rubber-based products, epoxy tooling board, emulsion explosives, artificial stones and other fields, is of great strategic significance to carbon emission reduction, chemicals storage, aviation and aerospace, petroleum and natural gas mining, 5G communications and military industry for our country.

Screening hollow glass microspheres can be an extremely difficult and tedious process. It requires a combination of technology and technique in order to make the required separations.

The main issue when screening hollow glass microspheres is coating of the screen mesh. The material is so light that it almost floats on the screen and has a hard time passing through the hole opening.

Furthermore, the ingoing feed must closely be metered to avoid overloading the screen.

Glass microsphere plays a very important role in production and life. Glass microsphere not only has the advantages of light weight, low thermal conductivity, high strength and good chemical stability, but also has hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties on the surface, which is easy to disperse in organic material system. What are the main characteristics of glass beads?

Main characteristics of glass bead

1. It can scatter light in the visible spectrum. The glass material is actually colorless and transparent, but because the glass bead has a scattering effect on the light in the full visible spectrum, it looks white. However, when it is added to colored materials, it also scatters the light of material color, so it can be widely used in any material with requirements for appearance color without affecting the original material color.

2. Low density. The density of glass bead is about one tenth of that of traditional filler particles. After filling, the base weight of the product can be greatly reduced. The larger volume makes it replace a large number of other raw materials, reducing the product cost.

3. It is lipophilic. Hollow glass beads are easy to wet and disperse, and can be filled in most thermosetting thermoplastic resins, such as polyester, epoxy resin, polyurethane, etc.

4. High dispersion and good liquidity. Because the glass bead is a tiny ball, it has better fluidity in liquid resin than the filler in sheet, needle or irregular shape, so it has excellent filling performance. More importantly, this kind of small bead is isotropic, so it will not produce the disadvantage of inconsistent shrinkage in different parts due to its orientation, which ensures the dimensional stability of the product and will not warp.

5. Low water absorption. The inside of glass bead is thin gas, so it has the characteristics of sound insulation and heat insulation, and is an excellent filler for various heat insulation and sound insulation products. The thermal insulation characteristics of glass beads can also be used to protect products from thermal shock caused by alternate changes between hot and cold conditions. Its high specific resistance and extremely low water absorption make it widely used for processing and producing cable insulation materials.

6. Low oil absorption. The particle size of the sphere determines that it has the smallest specific surface area and low oil absorption. The amount of resin can be greatly reduced in the use process, and the viscosity will not increase much even under the premise of high addition, which greatly improves the production and operation conditions, and can increase the production efficiency by 10%~20%.

ARTICLE SOURCE: haixumoliao

Global warming can be defined as a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. A lot of research work has been carried out to reduce that heat inside the residence such as the used of low density products which can reduce the self-weight, foundation size and construction costs.

Foamed concrete it possesses high flow ability, low self-weight, minimal consumption of aggregate, controlled low strength and excellent thermal insulation properties. This study investigate the characteristics of lightweight foamed concrete where Portland cement (OPC) was replaced by hollow glass microsphere at 0%, 3%, 6%, 9% by weight. The density of wet concrete is 1000 kg/m3 were tested with a ratio of 0.55 for all water binder mixture. Lightweight foamed concrete hollow glass microsphere (HGMs) produced were cured by air curing and water curing in tank for 7, 14 and 28 days. A total of 52 concrete cubes of size 100mm × 100mm × 100mm and 215mm × 102.5mm × 65mm were produced.

Furthermore, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were carried out to study the chemical composition and physical properties of crystalline materials in hollow glass microspheres. The experiments involved in this study are compression strength, water absorption test, density and thermal insulation test.

The results show that the compressive strength of foamed concrete has reached the highest in 3% of hollow glass microsphere with less water absorption and less of thermal insulation. As a conclusion, the quantity of hollow glass microsphere plays an important role in determining the strength and water absorption and also thermal insulation in foamed concrete and 3% hollow glass microspheres as a replacement for Portland cement (OPC) showed an optimum value in this study as it presents a significant effect than other percentage.

Hollow glass microspheres are a free-flowing, oleophilic product that is low in density (0.19g/cm3 ) and small in particle size (75µm, avg). This product is especially suited for use in adhesive applications.

When hollow glass microsphere is added to a “workhorse” epoxy resin system (bisphenol-A, cured with a modified aliphatic amine) at volume levels of 9 and 18%, resin density is reduced substantially, while lap-shear adhesive strength is retained, and in some cases, improved.

Additionally when used to augment the same resin system containing conventional solid fillers (calcium carbonate with fumed silica), hollow glass microspheres impart similar benefits. The data collected in the study illustrate the benefits gained from the use of hollow glass microspheres in the epoxy system.

Benefits include:

• Formulation density reduction, leading to cost savings.

• Maintenance of adhesive performance, potential improvement in bond strength at ambient temperatures and after exposure to elevated temperature stress.

• Viscosity optimization of the formulation, aiding in sag prevention and development of adequate “glue-line”.

Reflective glass beads are widely used in reflective materials such as reflective cloth, reflective coating, reflective webbing, screen printing, reflective hot-melt film, reflective leather, reflective wire, reflective ink, reflective paint high-strength reflective film, etc.

Ingredients: silicon dioxide, barium carbonate, titanium dioxide, etc

Appearance: white, gray reflective sphere reflector

Refractive index: nd ≥ 1.97, nd ≥ 1.93, nd ≥ 2.2

Specification: 120 mesh, 200 mesh, 280 mesh, 325 mesh, 400 mesh, 500 mesh, 600 mesh

Transparency: ≥ 95%

Roundness: ≥ 95%

Features: good corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance, excellent reflective effect,

Density: 4.1g/cm3

Temperature resistance: ≥ 850 ℃

Oil absorption: 28 ± 2.5g/100g

PH value: 6-7

Adding proportion: oil blending 15-30%

Storage method: ventilated, dry and sealed

These types of plastics are made by melt blending that includes Poly PCL which has hollow glass microspheres incorporated inside them. Further, with the added effect of treatments such as silanization on the hollow glass sphere, there is a difference brought in the properties of the silanized sphere vs. the unsilanized sphere. The analysis with silanization reflects that the dissemination of glass particles in the matrix of polymer in every case of a filer which is good, the silanized hollow glass microsphere showed a matrix adhesion.

In terms of its thermal nature, it is shown that the rate of crystallization is significantly enhanced and the stability also is enhanced as compared to a PCL without hollow glass microspheres. By adding the hollow glass sphere the mechanical nature of the product is altered which leads to an increase in the stiffness of the material. The tensile strength especially enhances quite significantly in comparison to untreated PCL. This behaviour observes by the hollow glass microsphere filled composites is the tensile strength is enhanced and with the addition of a silane agent the matrix adhesion is also improved.

Research shows that by incorporating 20% wt. of hollow glass microsphere the density is decreased by about 12% compared to a PCL without microspheres. With plastics the lightweight materials when reduced in density do not lose out on any mechanical properties, it remains intact. Hollow glass microspheres in this regard are one of the most effective and very affordable glass microspheres which have multiple uses.

One of the main goals when designing a part, a tool, and a processing method utilizing hollow glass microspheres is to minimize shear stresses to avoid crushing the spheres. Lack of proper attention to this factor may result in sharply reduced properties in the end product and increased part weight.

A single-screw design for incorporating iM30K microspheres into thermoplastic resins should contain a dispersive mixing element, which typically serves to break up agglomerates of fine particles. Examples of such mixing elements are the classic Maddock mixer (a fluted cylinder) or Saxton mixer (a densely flighted screw with a crosscut through the flights), though many others are available. The screw design should also have a distributive mixing element, which usually involves pin mixing sections.

In single-screw extruders, the iM30K microspheres should be added at a downstream feed port after the resin has been melted, just before the beginning of the metering zone, to minimize potential breakage of the spheres. They are added before the distributive mixing elements, in the middle of the compression section of the screw.

To mold polymers filled with hollow glass microspheres, a general-purpose injection screw is best. Other types of screws—like barrier, double-vane, or vented—are not recommended for processing hollow glass microspheres. The minimum diameter of the screw should be 1.5 in.

When molding with hollow glass microspheres, low backpressure of around 10 to 50 psi should be used. The hollow glass microspheres within the molten resin are apt to break when exposed to excessive injection speed and pressure. The injection speed should be kept low to medium. Unlike with previous microspheres, which limited cavity pressures to 10,000 psi, iM30K spheres can withstand 20,000 psi or more.

A variety of gates can be used, but to retain the hollow glass microspheres’ integrity, minimum gate width should be 0.06 in. As stated earlier, S-7 and H-13 type mold steels are recommended for producing parts filled with hollow glass microspheres.

Colored glass beads have uniform particle size, round particles, rich colors and beautiful colors. Good compatibility with various resins, with good color fastness, acid resistance, chemical solvent resistance, heat resistance, low oil absorption and other characteristics. It is widely used in many kinds of products such as architectural decoration, sewing agents, children’s toys, handicrafts, lighting, etc.

Composites suitable for rotational molding technology based on poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and filled with hollow glass microspheres or functionalized hollow glass microspheres were prepared via melt-compounding. The functionalization of hollow glass microspheres was carried out by a silanization treatment in order to improve the compatibility between the inorganic particles and the polymer matrix and achieve a good dispersion of hollow glass microspheres in the matrix and an enhanced filler–polymer adhesion.

The crystallization behavior of materials was studied by DSC under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions and the nucleating effect of the hollow glass microspheres was proven. In particular, the presence of silanized hollow glass microspheres promoted faster crystallization rates and higher nucleation activity, which are enhanced by 75% and 50%, respectively, comparing neat PCL and the composite filled with 20 wt% hollow glass microsphere.

The crystalline and supermolecular structure of PCL and composites crystallized from the melt was evaluated by WAXD and SAXS, highlighting differences in terms of crystallinity index and structural parameters as a function of the adopted crystallization conditions.