Objectives

• To develop suitable processing technology in the production of high quality silica material for used in various high-end silica-based products
• To determine the suitability of local silica material for the production and development of high technologies products.

Activities

Currently, the raw silica sand deposits are being utilised in low value-added industries such as in casting and foundries, ceramics, glass and glass products, cement and chemical/pharmaceutical sub-sectors. Malaysia imports the high quality material needed for optical and laboratory glassware industries.

The industrial mineral sub-sector is expected to continue to play a major role in the Malaysian minerals industry. Silica has been identified to have potential for further development.The silica raw material could be processed to meet the needs of traditional and high quality ceramics and other new products. R&D efforts could be initiated to value add to the silica sand resource for the production and development of new products.

Because of the presence of deleterious minerals within the silica sand deposits as well as within the silica mineral itself, this would prevent the resource from being used for higher value-added products and is undesirable to most manufacturing processes. Therefore, research should be carried out to determine the most cost-effective, efficient and environmentally-friendly methodologies to remove these deleterious minerals.

Particle size analysis.

Rapid Wet High Intensity Magnetic Seperator (WHIMS) was used for removing small amounts of paramagnetic material.

Head assay test For SiO₂, Fe2O₃ and LOI.

Pellet preparation using pelletizer.

Production of crystal Glass – casting (above) ang blowing (below).

Blowing.

CURRENT RESEARCH ACTIVITES

1. Silica sand processing - Detailed investigation covering various laboratory techniques to up-grade the raw silica sand resource to more than 99.95% SiO2 content.
2. Production of crystal glass - Research being conducted and focused into the manufacturing of pellet as a starting material to produce crystal glass.
3. Production of tritan glass - To produce tritan glass by using local silica sand.
4. Production of high quality glass product for the optical industries - Develop the technology of optical glass production by using local resource silica sand.
5. Recycling Optical Glass - In view of saving cost and without wasting energy, recycle glass is often used. Recycling will just not saving space for  dumping but it wills also increasing revenue of the company.

At the end of the study, we will be able to:

1. Compare the mentioned properties of the recycle optical glass before and after the reproduction process.
2. Develop the new route of melting, refining and annealing process for production of optical glass.