What is vermiculite and what is it used for? In this article you will read more about the properties and applications of this mineral.
Vermiculite is an ore, a pure and natural product. In order to make the raw vermiculite suitable for use, the coarse lumps are ground smaller. It is then heated to over 900 degrees Celsius, causing it to exfoliate to a granule. This produces a very light, non-flammable and inert material that is suitable for many applications.
Vermiculite has many positive properties:
The predominant golden colour of vermiculite varies slightly, depending on its origin. The lower the specific weight, the higher the quality of the vermiculite.
Agricultural sector
Vermiculite is used in agriculture mainly as a growing and topping medium. It is used by seed, cutting and propagation companies. The moisture absorption properties of vermiculite ensure for an optimal air-water balance. The use of vermiculite also promotes the airy and oxygen-rich soil structure.
Chemical transport & logistics
Vermiculite is used as an absorption material for the packaging and transport of hazardous solids and liquids. Due to its light weight, it is interesting for chemical companies to use vermiculite in the packaging of samples that have to be sent by air.
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Construction & Infra
As vermiculite is non-flammable, heat-resistant and has insulating properties, it is often used in construction. It is used in building, cavity walls, floors and sloping screeds as insulation for chimneys and fireplaces and as a fire-resistant filling of cable ducts and cavity walls.
Waste processing industry
Vermiculite is also used for the storage and transport of batteries. As a filling material it prevents contact and short circuiting.
We supply vermiculite with the RHP certification. This certification is necessary in the substrate market, and guarantees that the substrate meets the appropriate quality requirements of the RHP.
Vermiculite is the name used in commerce for a group of micaceous minerals that expand or exfoliate many times (commercial varieties esfoliate 8 to 20 times or more) the original thickness when heated. They show the characteristic micaceous structure of basal cleavage and occur as soft, pliable inelastic laminae. Their basal cleavages are not so perfect as those of mica. Vermiculite exists in a wide range of colours from black through various shades of brown to yellow. Its chemical composition varies widely consisting of a complex hydrated aluminium, magnesium silicate. Hence, the analysis of the mineral is of little use in determining the vermiculite for commercial utility; a technical trial of the material provides the only satisfactory test. Vermiculite owes its commercial utility to its property of exfoliation when heated. It exfoliates into a yellow to bronze coloured mass giving an appearance of a cluster of worms - vermiculus, an Italian word for worm from which it has derived its name.
Use; lightweight concrete aggregate, insulation, sound conditioning, fireproofing, plaster, soil conditioner, additive for fertilizers, seed bed for plants, refractory, lubricant, oil well drilling mud. Filler in rubber, paint, plastics. Wall paper printing, removal of strontium-90 from milk, absorption of oil spills on seawater, animal feed additive, packing, carrier for insecticides, catalyst and catalyst support, litter for hatcheries, adsorbent.
Vermiculite is always used in exfoliated form. When exfoliated, it possesses nearly 10 to 11 times less bulk density than the original volume. In commerce vermiculite which expands more than 10 times the original volume is regarded of good quality. With an expansion below 10 times the original volume, vermiculite is considered low grade. The low bulk density, comparatively high refractoriness, low thermal conductivity and chemical inertness make vermiculite satisfactory for many types of thermal and acoustic insulations. One of its large commercial uses is as an aggregate in light weight concrete and hard wall-plaster because of its acoustic and thermal insulating and fire-resisting qualities. The density of raw vermiculite is 50 to 90 lbs. per cu. ft. while that of the exfoliated one is 5-10 lbs. per cu. ft. It is therefore extensively used in concrete work to save weight. Vermiculite concrete weighs 20-25 per cu. ft. as concrete weighs about 100 lbs. per cu. ft. Vermiculite concrete has the same advantages as concrete made with pumice and perlite. Refractory insulations both in the form of loose vermiculite fill and vermiculite bricks are used in furnaces and kilns up to 1.100ºC. About 60% of the present world consumptions is in the form of loose fill when the expanded material is merely pured like dry sand into wall spaces or applied over ceiling constructions or attics of residential buildings with a view to insulating homes against the cold in winter and heat in the summer. Vermiculite concrete in the form of monolithic cast is used in sound-absorbing panels in aeroplane engine testing sheds.
Vermiculite, being a granular expanded aggregate with numerous air voids, when mixed with a suitable binder, develops sound insulating properties. Vermiculite plaster is widely used for better acoustics and reduction of noise in auditoriums, wireless studios, theatres, hospitals, etc. Vermiculite mixed with three parts of gypsum is used as plaster for sound-absorbing purposes.
More than hundred major and minor uses of vermiculite have been developed in the fields of agriculture, pesticides, lubricants, disinfectants, plastics and light-weight insulating bricks.
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