Imerys Minerals Limited

Hannu Olavi Ensio Toivonen

Jonathan Stuart Phipps

Jose M Rodriguez

Paul A Rey

Ian Stuart Bleakley

A new composite material which is useful as a pigment in paper making or paper coating is produced by precipitating a white insoluble pigment compound, eg calcium carbonate, in an aqueous suspension containing a mixture of fine particulate material eg titanium dioxide particles and fibers, eg cellulosic fibers. These suspended solids in the mixture are derived from separate stocks and added together to produce the composite pigment material. The new material is a bonded matrix of the fibers and the white pigment compound having particles of the fine particulate material, eg TiO , dispersed and bonded within the matrix. The new material may exist in the form of particles in dry or wet form which may be further treated in a known way prior to use in paper making or paper coating. Use of the new material allows expensive fine particulate material such as TiO particles to be better retained in a paper making composition whilst at the same time avoiding the known problem of agglomeration or 'crowding' of the fine particles which is known to affect adversely the optical properties of the composition produced using the fine particles.

Growing community of inventors

Roswell, GA, United States of America

Hannu Olavi Ensio Toivonen