Ultralite is predominantly a high kaolin formulation mixed with a variety of other refractory materials, along with a number of organic additives to aid the proprietary foaming process.
Mantec Technical Ceramics
The lightweight refractory’s central role is as an insulating refractory in kilns and furnaces, helping companies to employ easier car configuration techniques or to lighten the overall weight while increasing thermal efficiencies in the superstructure, and thereby substantially reducing fuel consumption. It is seen as a modern substitute for more traditional insulation materials across a number of quite distinct applications. Ultralite is an ultra-lightweight, microporous refractory material – a specialist foamed aluminosilicate aggregate product that was formulated by ceramic technologists in the UK. The new refractory formulation that is used to produce it is said to give it the edge over, for instance, micaceous and siliceous minerals.
Read the full article in our Refractories Manual 2020.
The science behind the lightweight refractory, developed over several decades, is what has led to its excellent performance. Most naturally occurring expanded minerals used for insulation applications, for example perlite or vermiculite, can lead to a final product that is problematic in terms of extremely variable pore size and limited thermal stability at elevated temperatures in excess of 900 °C. Conversely, the experience with the lightweight refractory product in the high-volume manufacture of ceramic sanitaryware, tableware and heavy clay products has been long-term consistent product performance allied to sustained cost and energy savings. Many installations are still using their original material after more than 15 years.
Lightweight material saves energy
“Probably the biggest single thing that we have achieved recently with our product is its remarkable lightweight feature,” comments Managing Director of Mantec Technical Ceramics, Andy Clark. “We help our customers to reduce the thermal mass of their kiln car design by replacing older more dense refractories with our lightweight insulation materials. In some cases we can demonstrate a kiln car weight reduction as high as 40 %, when using a mix of our lightweight products.”
Andy Clark continues, “The combined benefits of using lightweight insulation castables, low thermal mass firebricks and loose fill insulation products mean that you are able to not only reduce the thermal mass but also reduce installation labor, speed up the construction time, reduce heat loss, and therefore save energy and costs. Typical energy savings range from 5 % to 25 %, depending on how our products are integrated into the refractory design.”