Wire & Cable Imerys minerals provide excellent insulation and improved properties to industrial cables
Imerys supplies a wide range of minerals to enhance the insulation and mechanical properties of low to high voltage cables, semi-conductive cables and industrial cable sheathing.
Low and medium voltage cable insulation
Metakaolin and Calcined kaolin are excellent choices for low to medium voltage cables made from PVC, EPR, EPDM and EVA. Calcined kaolin provides:
- Excellent insulation properties
- Low moisture absorption
- Smooth surface finish
- Excellent dimensional control due to low die swell
- Very low permanent deformation - insulation layers maintain original thickness during cable production
We recommend:
Polestar® and Glomax® for this application with its low dissipation factor and low compression set.
Medium to high voltage cable insulation
Kaolin In medium to high voltage cables, made from EPR, EPDM, EVA, calcined clay provides:
- Excellent insulation properties
- Smooth surface finish
- Excellent dimensional control due to low die swell
We recommend our Polarite® range of silane-treated calcined clay range for good dielectric properties, moisture resistance and excellent insulating properties in medium to high voltage cables.
Rubber cable sheathing
Many Elastomers are used for this application, the most important being PVC-Nitrile, EPR, Butyl, Polychloroprene, CPE, EVA and CSM.
Imerys offers a wide variety of fillers to provide the chemical physical properties required by this application Such as:
- Kaolin and calcined kaolin, aluminum tri-hydrate, magnesium hydroxide, calcium carbonate.
- Fine sedimentary clays with modified basic pH are often used when a peroxide curing system is employed.
Tunnelling & mining
Sedimentary clays such as our SuprexTM and Mercap are ideal for improving abrasion and tear resistance in mine heavy-duty cable jacket compounds.
Submerged cables
Cables designed for permanent immersion need cable sheathing with very low moisture uptake.
We recommend our Polarite® range for moisture uptake in submerged cables.
Flexible cables
Flexible cables are submitted to a high number of bends and twists and need excellent compression set properties.
We recommend our Polestar® range for this application.
Halogen free flame retardant signal cables
Halogen free flame retardant cables require superior flame retardancy, abrasion and oil resistance, while maintaining excellent electrical properties.
We recommend combining high-brightness kaolin in conjunction with Alumina Trihydrate (ATH) or Magnesium Hydroxide (MDH) for this application.
We offer a full range of custom formulation and technical and process support services to help you match the right mineral grade to your application requirement.