Slurry Preparation/Mixing

Slurries/emulsions/ are generally intended to be stable suspensions of hard, soft, or liquid particles, dispersed in a liquid or pseudo-liquid carrier.

Basic Technology:

Coating "liquids", such as ceramic 'slip', battery electrode slurries, pigmented ink, magnetic "ink", and paint have functional solid or soft particles in a solution of binders, dispersion aids, solvent(s), fillers, and various other components to stabilize and enhance coatability, functionality and longevity in service.

Purpose and Rationale:

Creating and Manufacturing many of our coated products requires the application, uniform spacing and permanent attachment of small pieces of, for instance, hard particles, onto a carrier web.

Take as an example, magnetic tape for digital or analog recording of information.

The basic structure is a carrier tape, often made of PET film, and the functional bits are very small magnetizable particles. If we dusted the particles onto the tape, they would not be uniformly spaced, and would quickly fall off everywhere. So, an evolution of product and process design has led to uniform coating of these particles carried in a liquid "slurry" with solvent(s), binders, and other components to hold the particles on, enhance flexibility, lubricity, tape handling, and allow efficient manufacturing.

Practical Application:

Manufacturing a successful product requires high productivity and efficiency. One of the keys to achieve this is a stable slurry, with the correct characteristics for uniform coating and drying (and calendering). The important factors are chemistry ('the recipe'), and the method of preparation.

In it's basic form, slurry preparation involves particle size control, wetting, and 'dispersion' of the solid ingredient(s) with dispersing 'aids', surfactants, and mixing with solvents, plasticizers, binders, fillers, lubricants, and so on.

Yasui Seiki / Labo Involvement:

Labo Co., Ltd., our sister company, has personnel with many years of experience in preparing slurries for coating, in coating those materials, and in measuring product performance to assure achievement of the desired characteristics. Labo Co., Ltd. is equipped with modern, efficient equipment for all of these tasks. Labo is continuously working on new products and the slurries to make them.

Our global expertise and facilities are available to help you make a new product, or improve one you already have. Contact us. We're not so big that you would get lost in our structure.