The free market is at its most competitive state today. Every business entity in most industries – be it iron and steel manufacturing, the making of aluminium, petroleum processing, power generation, and what have you – strives to obtain every advantage over its competitors. However, the factors that can potentially lead to enormous advantages are an open game of research and development, and hence, are almost impossible to monopolize. One such important factor in the recent past that continues to be developed is the use of ceramic blanket.
These blankets are made of a type of insulation wool that can withstand incredible levels of temperature – by incredible, we mean above 1000 degrees Celsius or nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. It was first developed in the middle of the twentieth century in Europe, around the same time America and Russia were also trying to one-up each other with leaps in technological advancement. A key property to ceramic blanket is that it is aluminium-silicate-based. This means that not only can they remain chemically unaltered during exposure to extreme heat, they also possess low thermal conductivity. In other words, they not only can withstand high temperatures, they do not transfer heat to other surfaces so quickly. This makes them perfect for industrial operations.
What is perfect for operations, however, is not always the best for the organic beings working on them – that is, humans. There are numerous hazards associated with the use of ceramic blanket. Examples of these would be the inhalation of fibrous dust and contact with crystalline silica. The latter hazard is merely conjectural at the moment, since more research is needed to confirm the biological processes that could be triggered by handling after-use HTIW or High Temperature Insulation Wool, the fancy term for the base material of ceramic blanket. The inhalation of fibrous dust, though, is a different matter. Studies have shown that this natural property of ceramic fibre – that of producing dust with a length-to-diameter ratio exceeding 3:1, a length longer than 5 μm (0.005 mm) and a diameter smaller than 3 μm – can be critical to the health of the people who inhale them.
We should not close the door on this just yet, though. The research and experimentation concerned with making ceramic blanket safer for human beings while preserving their industrially useful properties continue to make strides, and before long, the scientific community will have made the material as safe to work with as any other.