Eccospheres® Typical Uses
Eccospheres® glass microspheres are used extensively throughout the aerospace industry and are specifically engineered to provide product solutions. Key properties such as low density/high strength, low thermal conductivity and high heat resistance are all essential in the following applications:
- Void fillers - For lightweight composites
- Edge sealers - Prevention of water ingress
- Ablative coatings - Heat shield of rockets, space vehicles and missiles
- Potting compounds - Encapsulation of electronic components
- Abradable seals - Used in jet engines to improve efficiency
- Radomes - Lightweight and RF transparent
- Speciality paints and coatings - Stealth technology
- Core fillers - For weight reduction of turbine blades
In addition to offering a standard range of Eccopsheres® glass microspheres we are able to customise microspheres according to our customers' specifications by modifying the starting materials and manufacturing parameters. This allows us to control characteristics such as density, strength, particle size and packing factor. If required, various surface treatments such as silanes can be applied.
More recently, our ability to coat microspheres has extended to the use of metallic compounds. Such products are developed for the manufacture of speciality paints and coatings and can offer the following properties:
- Magnetism
- Radar (and other EM) absorption or reflection
- Pigmentation
- Electrical and/or heat conduction
Eccopsheres® glass microspheres are used in a variety of applications in the marine surface sector, such as caulks and putties, deck levelling compounds, anti fouling paint and syntactic in-fill material. New areas of development include the use of microspheres in lightweight passive radar systems and speciality paints for signature management, via the use of various metallic surface treatments on the microspheres.
Our ability to engineer and customise Eccopsheres® glass microspheres has resulted in the development of a new generation of 'binary microspheres' which have an improved packing factor as well as low density and high strength. Binary microspheres have significantly improved the performance of syntactic foams used in deep water buoyancy applications. Other applications include neutral density cable sheaths for towed array systems and lightweight, RF tansparent radomes for submarines.
Because of their energy absorbing properties, both microsperes and macrospheres are used in many blast protection systems. Our unique ability to produce dye filled macrospheres has resulted in their use in a 'bruisable composite', where damage is easily evident.