The Use of Talc in Polyolefins Pipes Reinforcement

Talc is widely used to reinforce plastic resin. End use applications range from automotive, packaging, wood plastic composites, nucleation, anti-blocking to foamed structure as well as pipes. The paper given by Rio Tinto Minerals- Luzenac will focus on plastics pipes applications where talc is a cost-effective solution to reach high requirements. Talc efficiency will be compared to other mineral fillers. We will first focus on talc benefits in polyolefins pipes regarding, among others, stiffness, heat resistance, lower thermal expansion. Then, we will introduce a new high aspect ratio talc generation produced by an innovative Luzenac process. This new product allows, for example, unrivalled level of reinforcement and dimensional stability that would be highly beneficial for pipes end users.