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 is a very effective industrial insulation material, due to its unique physical properties. The versatility of this naturally occurring mineral means that it has applications across a wide range of industries, providing essential support as a high-performance insulator. It also acts as a superior relining material in the foundry and steel industry.
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.
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.
Being under fire, and fire itself, are threats to military personnel and assets, which is why high temperature insulation solutions play a crucial role in the military sector.
Elmelin’s prototyping capabilities mean that we can provide our varied customer-base with ways to fine-tune their requirements, while bringing down production costs and ironing out any potential problems or issues. Prototyping is both a critical evaluation tool for production, and a means of safeguarding against delays or disruptions which might otherwise be costly and damaging, both financially and reputation-wise.
Here, we look at why prototyping is so important, and the various uses of it. As such, prototyping is a capability with multiple functions, offering an enhanced service to businesses operating in different sectors.
High temperature insulation is not only about helping industries maintain efficiency, or ensuring electrical devices function consistently. It plays a key role in fire protection. Insulation for fire protection is something we specialise in, and our mica-based and microporous high temperature insulation products and technology cut across many industries, providing essential safeguarding against fire risks in various situations and settings.
