Industrial Uses of Talc

Talc is considered as a very important mineral in the industrial world and is in fact one of the most typical minerals for every day use as a body and face powder and in cosmetics. Everyone has at some point or another utilized talcum powder and the name came about from the actual mineral. Aromatic talcum powder has been a very big factor in the expansion and development of the world of cosmetics for women. Actually, the usage of talc has been known of to civilizations in the past. Pulverized talc has been used in the industrial world in applications such as a filler in rubber, plastic, textile, linoleum, polishes, asbestos products, soaps etc. and has also been used as a loading agent for all types of paper. Talc is also used as a carrier of pesticidal and insecticidal dusts for covering calcium ammonium fertilizer. Almost all of the rubber manufactures utilize talc powder since it serves as a lubricant to avoid the ungalvanized rubber goods from sticking together. Lava, which is the purer variety of steatite after it has been calcinized, is used in the manufacturing of low loss ceramic materials that are needed for high frequency insulations in all types of televisions, radios, etc. The bricks that are made out of crushed steatite stuck together by sodium silicate are utilized for the manufacture of furnaces where argentiferous lead is softened before it is desilverized. Around fifty percent of the total consumption is utilized in the paper industry and around fifteen percent is utilized by the pesticide and insecticide domestic industry and around a mere three percent is used by the manufacturers of talcum powder. The rest is consumed in the ceramic, paint, rubber, textile and other industries. Ancient craftsmen in the Harappa civilization for example used to show their abilities on steatite and used to carve their seals with pictures of mythological signs and drawings before they placed the carving in heat which would then make it attain a lustrous white, enamel looking surface. Other items such as little sculptures, vessels etc were utilized with the mineral during those ancient times.