Foaming
Natural minerals can help improve the weight and performance of PP, PVC and polystyrene plastic foam composites.
Lighter, stronger foamed plastics
If you’re producing lightweight materials from polyolefin-based foam composites, or other foamed plastics such as PVC or expanded polystyrene, minerals like calcium carbonate and talc* can improve stiffness at lower densities and increase foaming.
Ground calcium carbonates like our PolCarb™ and ImerCarb™ grades are very cost-effective foaming agents for PVC manufacturing. Likewise, precipitated calcium carbonates such as our Socal® & Winnofil® grades are excellent foam nucleation additives in expanded polystyrene.
Where available, micro-lamellar talcs, such as our Luzenac 8218 grade, have a high surface area that promotes the nucleation of uniform and narrow gas bubbles during the foaming process. This increases the number of foam cells and makes cell distribution and growth more consistent, improving stiffness at lower densities and optimizing lightweighting.
Imerys talcs provide:
- A significant increase in cell density
- Fine and regular cell size
- Improved stiffness at lower densities
- Optimized lightweight materials
Our Luzenac 8218 grade allows more gas to be trapped, increasing cell number and making cell distribution more uniform. It is ideal for nucleating PP, PS, PVC and polyurethane foams.
*Talc products are not available in the USA and Canada. Contact us for an alternative range.
