Adding carbon black to EG?

[janaf]

Does anyone know anything about adding carbon to EG? I have a bunch of toner casettes! and was thinkig of dying EG black with this. Did anyone attempt somethig like this? WIll it act like graphite reinforcement filler or like graphite lubricant

[lgalla]

I have added carbon black to E/G from Cabot corp.
Would not recommend using toner,It is not a reinforcement.Graphite is very soft.
Cabot has reps in Sweden.They sell by the truck load but in Canada and US you can get a lb or more as a sample which will go a long way.
The product is called Monarch 800
Larry
MONARCH® 800 - Cabot Corporation

[janaf]

Thanks I looked at the Cabot web site and it says:

A specialty black pigment designed for a wide variety of applications, this powdered carbon black offers excellent jetness, blue undertone and UV durability.

I really do not know what is in lazer toner cartridges, carbon black, graphite or whatever.
The link for the datasheet for Monarc is 404 at the moment.

About laser toner, I found the text below http://www.refilltoner.com/tonerExplained.html

The resins, carbon black, magnetic iron oxides, waxes and charge control agents are blended while molten to form a hot paste the consistency of cake mix. This viscous mixture is then cooled either by slabbing it out, by extruding it onto a cooling belt or by pelletizing it and cooling the pellets. This raw toner is then ground to a powder by jet mills or air-swept hammer mills. These processes produce a wide variety of particle sizes. The over-size and under-size toner particles are sifted out in a 1 to 3 pass process.

The pulverized, sifted toner powder is then blended with additives to adjust flow and electrostatic properties. This final blending is critical and hard to control, especially when the additive particle size is a lot different from the toner particle size.

For toner produced this way, an average toner particle of about 8 microns is about as small as you can get without astronomical costs.

[keebler303]

It would make it black, but not much else, maybe a little weaker? If you want to add something useful, try some chopped or milled carbon or glass fiber.

Fibre Glast Developments : Carbon Fiber : Fiberglass : Resin : Kevlar : Epoxy : Polyester : Gel Coats : Fillers

Matt

[janaf]

Making it black and not much else is fine with me if it does not make it weaker.

Fiberglass filler might be an option, but doubles? the cost of the EG, so it would have to be somehow motivated, compared to steel reinforcement. Carbon fiber seems prohibiting for all but small high load parts or high budget projects. Carbon fiber is excellent when weight is an issue but I have hard to see why one would use it for a heavy machine.

[underthetire]

How about lamp black, it's used in dying concrete?

[keebler303]

lamp black is carbon black. I think carbon black would not make the EG weaker. Toner looks like it has waxes and other materials which would not promote adhesion and would therefore I think weaken the EG. I don't know why you'd want to make it black, just so it looks better? You can buy pigment specifically made to put into epoxy if that is the goal. It would seem to me strength is more important that how it looks, but what do I know?

Matt

[janaf]

Well, twas just a thought as I had a half a dozen cartridges that else just go to the garbage. I thought printer cartridges just contained carbon powder but I read up on the subject and the part with wax that melts and fixes the carbon to the paper made me abandon the idea....

[rocketflier]

Use materials that are the color you're shooting for.