DEHYBOR

APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS

• Heat and chemical-resistant glasses
• Illumination glasses
• Optical lenses
• Medical and cosmetic containers
• Hollow microspheres
• Glass beads

For this purpose, Dehybor has advantages over 5 and 10 mol borax: Dehybor has a higher bulk density and melts more rapidly, even with minimum energy. Dehybor is also a source of sodium and can be used with boric acid or 20 Mule Team^® Borax boric oxide to control the sodium oxide/boric oxide ratio in the glass. To formulate glasses with low thermal expansion (high thermal shock resistance) and good chemical durability, the productacts as both a flux and network former.

Dehybor is also used in the production of glasses and enamels, which provide decorative and protective coatings for ceramics (e.g., wall and floor tiles, tableware, porcelain) and metals (e.g., plumbing fixtures, cookware, appliances). As with borosilicate glass, the product allows the formulation of low-melting glazes and enamels with the correct thermal expansion. In enamels, this borate also improves adhesion to metal by dissolving iron oxide and reducing the melt surface tension.

Speaking of metal, Dehybor is an excellent solvent for metallic oxides at high temperatures. Dehybor can serve as a cover flux to protect metal surfaces from air oxidation, and it serves as a scavenger to dissolve metallic oxides and other contaminants in the production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

In refractories, borate compounds like Dehybor are used as stabilizers and bonding agents in firebricks and castables. The product provides an intermediate-temperature glassy bond prior to the establishment of the ceramic bond (at which point the borate compound is frequently volatilized from the system).

Dehybor is used in the formulation of slow-dissolving cleaning briquettes, based on gelled or solidified borate suspensions. In toilet bowl cleaners, for example, the slow release of borate softens water to prevent scale buildup, while also deodorizing and inhibiting stain formation.

And Dehybor’s crosslinking powers are valued in the oil industry, where high-viscosity oil-well fluids that result from the reaction between Dehybor and polymers are used to increase the recovery of oil from subterranean formations.