Kaolin, also known as china clay, is soft white clay which is an essential element in the manufacturing of porcelain and china and is used widely in making paper, paint, rubber, and lots of other products. In its natural form kaolin is a soft, white powder consisting mainly of the kaolinite mineral, which under electron microscope, is known to consist of generally hexagonal, platy crystal ranging in the size from approximately 0.1 to 10 micrometres. These crystals can take booklike and vermicular forms, and macroscopic forms approaching the millimetre size are occasionally found. Kaolin, found in nature generally contains varying quantities of other minerals like muscovite, feldspar, anatase and quartz. In addition, basic kaolin is often stained yellow by the iron hydroxide pigments. It’s often needed to bleach clay chemically to eliminate the iron pigments and to wash with water to eliminate the other minerals to make kaolin for commercial uses.
Kaolin is extensively used in ceramic industry, in which its white burning characteristics and higher fusion temperature makes it mainly apt for the manufacturing of white ware (china), refractories and porcelain. For the manufacturing of whiteware, kaolin is generally mixed approximately with equal amounts of feldspar and silica and a fairly smaller quantity of light-burning, plastic clay called ball clay. All these components are needed to obtain the right properties of plasticity, vitrification, shrinkage, etc., for firing and forming the ware. Kaolin clay is usually used alone in manufacture of refractories. Due to its varied uses, there are many Kaolin clay manufacturers on the market. These manufacturers also are well known phosphate supplier. Phosphate is a phosphoric acid salt. You can find many such manufacturers and suppliers in both the online as well as the offline market. You can find the best one for you by comparing them through their clients’ reviews and feedbacks.
