Estudo sobre a utilização do rejeito do granito rosa iracema como matéria-prima na fabricação de funis de saída da fiação a rotor na indústria têxtil

Abstract

The present work was motivated by the need to minimize environmental impacts caused by granite quarrying. One of the ways to achieve this objective is to find value-added technical applications for granite residues. In a previous work it has been demonstrated that these silica-rich granite powders can be employed as raw-materials for the production of textile thread-guides. One very promising application for the textile industry in Brazil is the fabrication of open end navels. These are high-cost components made from expensive technical ceramics, which are imported from Europe. Therefore, it would be very interesting to be able to produce them at a lower cost, using residual granite powders. Preliminary analysis of the materials of commercially available textile navels has shown that they are composed mainly of alumina. Under normal conditions, alumina-made components exhibit much higher mechanical strength and hardness than silica-made components. Thus, it is necessary to introduce reinforcements to the starting granite powder used in this work (a residue obtained form the commercial stone “Rosa Iracema”), in order to improve the performance of the parts made from it. Different amounts of submicrometric alumina particles were added to the starting powder, rendering composites. These composites were submitted to several mechanical and physical analysis aiming at finding the best combination of properties, compared to the properties of the commercially available textile navels. Test pieces containing 30% and 40%wt alumina gave the best results in terms of sinterability, and surface roughness. Their hardness was approximately 80% of the hardness of the alumina navels.