Overview
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ABSTRACT
This paper first describes the origin and manufacturing of hollow glass microspheres, and their important physical and chemical properties for the production of syntactic foams in the offshore oil industry. They are found mainly in the buoyancy modules and thermal insulation of pipelines immersed at great depth. Other microsphere applications are also discussed, and a non-exhaustive list of other cellular loads is given.
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Jean-Marie RUCKEBUSCH: Application development and technical support engineer - 3M France, Advanced Materials Department, CERGY PONTOISE, France
INTRODUCTION
The composite materials industry has a range of mineral raw materials available for incorporation into synthetic resins to impart certain properties to manufactured parts that the resins do not intrinsically possess, such as rigidity, weight reduction, impact strength, thermal resistance, etc. Glass microspheres are mainly used as fillers to lighten thermoplastic or thermoset resins. Hollow glass microspheres, with a very low real density (0.12 to 0.60 g/cm 3 ), are mainly used as fillers to lighten thermoplastic or thermosetting resins and certain elastomers, leading, among other things, to the production of syntactic foams.
Syntactic foam is a complex composite material made from hollow glass microspheres embedded in a specially selected resin matrix. This material provides high mechanical strength at the lowest possible density.
These syntactic foams, also known as buoyancy materials, are fitted to equipment intended for marine applications at depths of between 1,000 and 10,000 m. Their purpose is to neutralize the weight of equipment immersed at their working depth. As a result, syntactic foams have to withstand considerable pressures, which can exceed 1,000 bar. In particular, they must retain all their buoyancy properties, i.e. be neither deformable nor permeable to water.
Glass microspheres are often used in conjunction with other cellular fillers such as silica-alumina fly ash, synthetic resin microspheres and perlites, which are briefly described at the end of this article.
This article discusses the manufacturing process and physico-chemical properties of glass microspheres, followed by a detailed look at syntactic foam technology, for which glass microspheres are an essential component.
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KEYWORDS
properties | manufacturing | utilization | thermal insulation | buoyancy modules | gas pycnometry | hydrostatic compressive strenght
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Hollow glass microspheres for syntactic foams
Bibliography
Events
Offshore Technology Conference
Offshore Norway
http://www.offshorenorway.no/event/activitymonths
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Standards and norms
- Plastics – Methods for determining the density of non-cellular plastics – Part 3: Method using a gas pycnometer - NF EN ISO 1183-3 - 1999
- Rigid cellular plastics – Determination of compression characteristics - ISO 844 - 2014
- Plastics – Determination of compression properties - NF EN ISO 604 - 2004
- Rigid cellular plastics -- Determination of bending properties – Part 2: Determination of flexural...
Patents
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US5064784: Glass frit useful for the preparation of glass bubbles, and...
Directory
Glass microsphere manufacturers in Europe (non-exhaustive list)
3M France
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