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

Hollow Glass Microspheres. developed in recent years, are a new type of materials which shows a greater use and an outstanding performance. The product, made mainly from borosilicate, is a hollow microspheres whose grain size is 10-250 micron and wall-thickness 1-2 micron.

The products have many advantages substantial weight saving, low heat conductivity, high mechanical strength and fine chemical stability. With treated specially, they have the properties of lipophilicity and hydrophobicity and are very easily dispersed in organic materials such as resin. It is widely used in the composite materials such as FRP(fiber reinforced plastics),man-made marble and man-made agate.

They have the distinct results of decreasing weight, sound insulation and heat preservation, thus the products have the excellent performances of anti-crazing and re-processing. They are widely to be used in a range of fields such as aviation, space, new bullet train, luxurious yacht, heat insulating dope, bowling balls and play a unique role.

From: bariteworld

Engineered additives for a new generation of high performance paints and coatings.

Glass Bubbles are lightweight/high-strength hollow glass spheres, used as alternatives to conventional fillers in a variety of paints  and specialty coatings, including spackling, caulks, adhesives, roof coatings and more.

From:3M

Lightweight Microspheres in the 11-18 micron range, even smaller flecks of Aluminium or Mica and even Nanoparticles can be coated with a variety of metals including silver, gold, iridium and palladium. The resultant finishes have all the properties of solid metals and have a larger surface area but are extremely reflective, very lightweight and very cost effective.

When added to paints, adhesives, sealers, plastic and resin materials at appropriate ratios, these coated cenospheres, microspheres, nanoparticles, aluminium or mica fleck materials can then provide electrical conductivity and shielding of electronic devices against Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI). The low particle density and large surface area facilitates slow phase separation in paints and adhesives compared to heavy metallic and inorganic fillers.

From: Ceno Technologies

High strength, low-density hollow glass microspheres for critical deepwater components.

These additives are used for density reduction, thermal insulation and buoyancy in many

kinds of syntactic foam compositions.

From:3M

Summary：
K25 glass bubbles have a density of 0.25 g/cc and an isostatic crush strength of 750 psi.

Properties：
Lower viscosity, improved flow
Increased filler loading, reduced cost
VOC reduction
Chemical stability and inertness
Reduced dielectric constant
Thermal conductivity reduction
Temperature resistance

Applications：
Mining
Paints and coatings
Insulation and buoyancy
Transportation

Glass microspheres are microscopic spheres of glass manufactured
for a wide variety of uses in research, medicine, consumer goods and
various industries. Glass microspheres are usually between 1 to 1000
micrometers in diameter, although the sizes can range from 100
nanometers to 5 millimeters in diameter. Hollow glass
microspheres,sometimes termed microballoons, or glass bubbles have
diameters ranging from 10 to 300 micrometers.

Hollow spheres are used as a lightweight filler in composite materials
such as syntactic foam and lightweight concrete. Microballoons give
syntactic foam its light weight, low thermal conductivity, and a
resistance to compressive stress that far exceeds that of other
foams. These properties are exploited in the hulls of submersibles and
deep-sea oil drilling equipment, where other types of foam would
implode.
Hollow spheres of other materials create syntactic foams with
different properties, for example ceramic balloons can make a light
syntactic aluminium foam.

Hollow spheres also have uses ranging from storage and slow release
of pharmaceuticals and radioactive tracers to research in controlled
storage and release of hydrogen. Microspheres are also used in
composites to fill polymer resins for specific characteristics such as
weight, sandability and sealing surfaces. When making surfboards for
example, shapers seal the EPS foam blanks with epoxy and
microballoons to create an impermeable and easily sanded surface
upon which fiberglass laminates are applied.

Glass microspheres can be made by heating tiny droplets of dissolved
water glass in a process known as ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP),
and properties can be improved somewhat by using a chemical
treatment to remove some of the sodium. Sodium depletion has also
allowed hollow glass microspheres to be used in chemically sensitive
resin systems, such as long pot life epoxies or non-blown
polyurethane composites

Additional functionalities, such as silane coatings, are commonly
added to the surface of hollow glass microspheres to increase the
matrix/microspheres interfacial strength (the common failure point
when stressed in a tensile manner).

Microspheres made of high quality optical glass, can be produced for
research on the field of optical resonators or cavities.

Glass microspheres are also produced as waste product in coal-fired
power stations. In this case the product would be generally termed
“cenosphere” and carry an aluminosilicate chemistry (as opposed to
the sodium silica chemistry of engineered spheres). Small amounts of
silica in the coal are melted and as they rise up the chimney stack, expand
and form small hollow spheres. These spheres are collected together
with the ash, which is pumped in a water mixture to the resident ash dam.
Some of the particles do not become hollow and sink in the ash
dams, while the hollow ones float on the surface of the dams. They become a
nuisance, especially when they dry, as they become airborne and
blow over into surrounding areas.

Source: Wikipedia

hollow glass microsphere is a specially Hollow glass microspheres T60 processed glass beads, its main feature is denser than glass beads smaller thermal conductivity is worse. Typical particle size range 10-180 microns , bulk density 0.1-0.25 g / cc, a lightweight, low thermal conductivity , sound insulation, high dispersion , electrical insulation and thermal stability , etc., in recent years developed a versatile , high-performance new lightweight material .

widely used in glass fiber reinforced plastic products , composite foam , artificial marble , synthetic wood , sound insulation materials , putty , deep-sea buoyancy material , bowling, low-density adhesives, sealing materials, lightweight resin crafts, mural wall frames, wallboard sandwich layer structure , electronic industry lightweight packaging materials, absorbing materials, lightweight concrete , emulsion explosives.

Good fluidity, product size, excellent stability. As a result of hollow glass microspheres are small ball, in a
liquid, moves like the miniature ball bearing, than flake, needle or irregular shape of the filler has good fluidity,
the resulting microspheres effect, to make the mixture viscosity decreased, the filling properties of the natural
good; good processing performance, can improve the production efficiency by 10% ~ 20%. Because the spherical body is
isotropic, so filled microspheres not due to alignment caused by different parts of shrinkage rate inconsistent
shortcomings, to ensure product size stability, does not warp, solve the profile, large plastic injection molding
products processing long-standing deformation problem.

The color is  pure white and the appearance of calcium carbonate, which can be widely applied to any pair of color appearance requirements of the product.The proportion of light volume. After filling the product greatly reduce weight, reduce the main raw material of resin consumption, reduce the cost become possible.

Filling process is simple. Hollow glass microspheres because of their own reasons, some models should be treated by coupling agent can be directly and the main ingredients (for thermosetting resin ) or in the form of filling masterbatch ( applicable to thermoplastic resin ) relatively more trouble. Filled with hollow glass microspheres products and the use of foaming agent products have the same effect; and the various physical and mechanical properties and better to die, no special requirements.

Glass microsphere is a new ultra light filling material of hollow closed spherical.As the particle diameter, wall thickness of the true density at 0.12 ~ 0.60g /cm3, particle diameter in 15 ~ 135um ( including a variety of specifications ). With a light weight of large volume, low thermal conductivity, dispersibility, fluidity, good in stability. In addition, glass microspheres also has insulating, self-lubricating, heat insulation,water, corrosion resistant, radiation resistant, nontoxic and excellent performance.

This product of glass microspheres can be filled in the vast majority of thermosets, thermoplastic resin product, can be improved or determined material are several properties: density ( lower), liquidity, viscosity, rheological properties ( lower ) ( thickening, not tears ),matte effect, shrinkage ( lower ), mechanical processing ( improve ), impact strength,hardness, insulation, explosive performance, acoustic properties, thermal insulation properties..