Mica is a naturally occurring mineral with inherent insulation properties that make it ideally suited to a broad range of industrial and commercial applications. As a product, mica cuts across sectors, supporting specialised industries, such as foundry and steel, but also in our homes and in everyday use in consumer appliances.
Mica is versatile but also, to an extent, hidden. It is often the case that people are unaware of it, or of its properties. Here, then, we answer some commonly asked questions about mica.
What is high temperature insulation? High temperature insulation is an insulating substance that protects from extremely high temperatures and is used in manufacturing, cars, electrical appliances, and tooling, amongst other things.
Many different industries rely on high temperature insulation to carry out essential processes, manufacture products and components, and ensure optimum, economic performance.
Insulation is vital for preventing the transfer of heat. By doing this, it reduces the amount of energy that is needed to raise temperatures, and it protects that are adjacent to the heat source from damage.
While mica brings key environmental benefits to a wide number of industries, is mica environmentally friendly when it comes to its mining, processing and disposal?
Mica is a naturally occurring mineral and its two main forms used in various industrial and commercial applications are phlogopite or green mica, and muscovite or white mica.
As this blog post on mica in its natural form explores, extracting mica requires mining it. As with all forms of mining, there are risks and environmental issues that come with these processes.
Mica has a significant impact on people’s everyday lives through its use in domestic as well as industrial settings and situations. This includes insulation for consumer appliances, but also its use in mica panel heaters.
Mica and electricity are a match made in heaven. A key property of mica is that while it conducts heat, it does not conduct electricity. This means mica has a very capable dielectric function, making it ideally suited for applications which require an effective heat conductor and electric insulator. Furthermore, because mica is both flexible and durable, we can manufacture and shape it to make it supremely adaptable across a spectrum of industries and products. These range from the power electronics sector to consumer appliances, and also include essential electrical insulation for essential components in both the aerospace and automotive industries.
Because of its extraordinary properties, mica is used across a broad spectrum of industries. In its raw mineral form, mica is made up in such a way that it naturally cleaves into thin sheets.
Once processed, these sheets, whether rigid or flexible, form the basis for different products, supporting various industrial and manufacturing processes.
Therefore, when it comes to asking how mica is used, the answers are varied, reflecting the versatility of this mineral. It is associated with furnaces and foundries, but also power electronics, aviation, vehicles, the military, consumer appliances and even in beauty products.
If you look at the end products and applications of mica, they can seem a long way from mica in its natural state. As a product, mica in sheet form is one of the most versatile, widely-used forms of processed mica, and here we answer how are mica sheets made?
Mica sheets come in different grades for a wide variety of applications. They can be either flexible or rigid, and can be composite or pure in composition.
Mica has numerous applications across many industry sectors, but is there any kind of downside? Is mica safe? This is a logical question to ask of mica, if you compare it to asbestos. Why asbestos? Because, while we now know the health risks associated with asbestos, at one time it was regarded as essential across different industries due to its fire-proofing capabilities. Furthermore, like mica, asbestos comes from silicate minerals. Read on to find out if Mica is safe.
As a versatile form of the natural mineral mica, mica sheets are used in a broad way across different sectors.
For various industries, mica sheets provide the ideal means of harnessing mica’s excellent insulation qualities, its strength and its chemical resistance. With the availability of varying thicknesses of sheet, in both rigid and flexible form, mica is both extremely resilient and superbly adaptable.
