Calcium carbonate powder is one of the most popular and essential mineral fillers used in the plastic industry for various purposes. As an important element in plastic compounds, CaCO3 helps decrease surface energy and provides opacity and surface gloss, which improves the surface finish of the products.

Calcium Carbonate as a filler-

• It improves the finish impact strength of the material.
• A special grade for high percentage age filter loading in PVC pipe.
• It improves shine, tensile strength elongation, etc of the material.
• These grades or powder are used in the manufacturing of firm and flexible PVC pipes.
• Calcium carbonate improves the basic properties of polyvinyl chloride or PVC by adding stiffness to the polymer matrix and improving impact resistance as particle sizes become smaller. Calcium carbonate also improves the compounding performance of the PVC pipes by helping disperse various ingredients into the PVC powder blend and improves processing by making polymer flow more homogeneous.

PVC pipes are manufactured by extrusion of raw material PVC, and generally follow the same steps of typical pipe extrusion operations:

• Feeding of raw material or powder into the PVC twin screw extrude.
• Melting and heating in multiple extrude zones.
• Ejecting through a die to shape into a pipe.

Besides, when the particle size is carefully controlled, CaCO3 helps increase both impact strength and extramural modulus. In PVC, calcium carbonate powder is used with flexible compounds such as tubing, wire and cable insulation, latex gloves, trash bags, and also in rigid compounds such as extruded pipes, conduits, and window profiles.

PVC pipe compounds typically contain varying amounts and types of calcium carbonate. Calcite is a filler allowing to harden the plastic through the formation of a composite, allowing to use less plastic, which is an expensive ingredient. In PVC, calcium carbonate is used with flexible compounds such as tubing, wire, and in other compounds such as extruded pipes, conduits, etc

Calcium carbonate may be used with a myriad of thermoplastic resins. Polypropylene compounds are often filled with calcium carbonate to increase severity, an important requirement for operations at high temperatures. Both calcium carbonates and coated calcium carbonates contribute to the performance properties of this wide variety of piping applications in the industry. The choice of the product depends on the specific application and the major property requirements of that application. For maximum property development and formulation pliability, surface-treated carbonates are designed to give good quality dispersion along with excellent incorporation in the polymer matrix. PVC pipe functions without any corrosion or leaking and repairs are simple to perform compared to cast iron or copper piping.