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sag control clay

Settlement & Sag Control Clay Suppliers

Min-U-Gel ® – Speciality Thickeners

General Description

Min-U-Gel minerals are specially processed colloidal gelling agents prepared in fine particle sizes from attapulgite clay.

Its gel characteristics are best described as yield-pseudoplastic and thixotropic, providing valuable benefits to the user such as:

Features & Benefits

Features  

Benefits
Stable Gel Strength
  • Prevents settling of solids, phase separation or syneresis in the mixture during storage, thereby reducing pre-application mixing time
High Viscosity at Low Shear Rates
  • Maintains mix uniformity during processing and packaging
  • Permits use of low shear mixers
  • Minimises sag and flow after application
  • Controls penetration rate of adhesives and stains
  • Prevents adhesive squeeze-out during high pressure laminating
Low Viscosity at High Shear Rates
  • Permits faster mixing prior to application
  • Makes application easier
  • Improves levelling during application of high viscosity mixtures
Rapid “Recoverability”
  • Mixture quickly returns to its original viscosity after application, or after mixing before application
Consistent Gel Characteristics at Extreme Temperature Conditions
  • Permits use in high or low temperature applications or manufacturing conditions


The Applications

Features  

Benefits
Paint
  • Min-U-Gel 400 is recommended to prevent sag after application and to suspend pigments in the liquid while in the can
Sealants and Mastics
  • Min-U-Gel 400 allows sealants or mastics to be spread or extruded easily under shear; but it will prevent sag when the shear is stopped. Its excellent suspension ability provides good product stability in the can.
Adhesives
  • Min-U-Gel 400 is used in adhesives developed for laminating wood products, controlling the adhesive’s penetration rate into the wood. In addition, for the same reasons given for paints, sealants and mastics
Joint Compounds
  • Min-U-Gel FG is used in joint compounds developed for taping gypsum wall board joints. It is used in both the wet and dry forms of joint compounds, providing the same functions described under sealants and mastics
Other Applications
  • Other grades are available for use in inks, stains, liquid waxes, sealers, friction materials and plastisols


The Availability

Richard Baker Harrison is the UK distributor for Active Minerals LLC, the producers of Min-U-Gel ®. The products are readily available from stock in Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Acti-Gel ® 208 - Fast Stability Control for Water-based Products

The material

Acti-Gel® 208 is highly purified clay based powdered product. The purification process with two process patents results in a magnesium aluminium silicate product with unique properties.

The raw material in this process, known as attapulgite clay, changes drastically in properties as a result of the purification process. The result is a product with completely homogeneous rod-shaped particles with pseudo-nano dimensions.

The theory

Stability at rest in thixotropic or pseudo plastic liquids is often the result of a three dimensional network of tiny particles at rest.

The homogeneous shape of the Acti-Gel® 208 particles allows very fast formation of such a network in water-based products, preventing settlement and water floatation highly efficient.

Upon shear (spraying, pumping, tooling, brushing or pouring) this network is broken down completely. This results in a very low viscosity under shear.

As soon as the water-based product is at rest, the network is formed again very fast. In some cases in less than 0.2 seconds!

This results in the reconstruction of a high viscosity (stabilization, preventing sagging) after application.

The result

Water-based liquids, slurries and suspensions with ions and/or solids (with charge) can become highly pseudo plastic by addition of 0,01-3% (w/w) of Acti-Gel® 208.

Water-based products show excellent workability, spray-ability, self-levelling properties, green strength and self-compacting properties since the viscosity is very low by the shear during application.
The viscosity under shear is lower than with cellulose ethers.

Once applied, viscosity will recover by absence of shear, resulting in unmatched stability (no bleeding, no segregation, high layer thickness, no synereses, and no colour float).

The dosing rate of Acti-Gel 208 depends on the amount of ions and/or solids with charge in your water based product. The level needed will be lower at high concentrations of ionic charges.

The time needed for the viscosity to recover after applying shear, also depends on this concentration of ionic charges. Recovery will be faster at higher concentrations of charge.
Acti-Gel 208 has also been found to act as reinforcing filler in several applications.

The bonus

Acti-Gel® 208 is non reactive, non-swelling, non- shrinking, temperature stable, non retarding, shear stable and bio-stable.

The availability

Richard Baker Harrison is the UK distributor for Active Minerals LLC, the inventors of Acti-Gel® 208. The product is readily available from stock in Stoke-on-Trent, England.

The applications

Acti-Gel® 208 has only been on the market since the year 2000 but the number of applica-
tions developed in close cooperation with our customers is already high and still increasing rapidly. Some examples of highly successful applications are:

Application    

Most remarkable benefits
Water based paints and inks Eliminates sedimentation
Decreases synerese
Pigment dispersions Prevents settlement
Better pump ability
Ceramic glazes, enamels and engobes  Machine applied plasters 
(cement or gypsum based)		 Smoother surface, less defects
Improved work ability
Less sensitive for temperature 
Providing green strength in many applications   Higher green strength, non sticky
Catalyst processing  Harder product, wear resistance

 

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