PROCESSING OF IBESHE, GYPSUMORE FOR MEDICAL AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Over the last decades, there have been serious needs to design and manufacture materials to have or retain peculiar properties for medical and industrial applications. Gypsum is a favourite when it comes to mimicking certain features of human body and enhancing some properties of industrial products made from it. Gypsum is widely used for medical purposes ranging from design of dental prosthetics to limbs support in orthopaedics; but the gypsum powder used for these products are usually well processed. Gypsum ore was obtained from a mine at Ibese in Ogun, Nigeria State and processed in a multistage de-gritting operation to obtain a grit-free powder which was converted to gypsum plaster (Plaster of Paris, POP) at about 220oC. The plaster powder so produced was used with property enhancing additives like calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, warm water and others to produce some medical and industrial products. Some of the medical products were tested at the State Specialist Hospital Ado-Ekiti and were found to conform with the required standard for such applications in medicine (especially dentistry and orthopedic). Other products such as chalk and wallboards were also produced from the processed gypsum and these also performed satisfactorily. Results of property tests showed that the products will have long service life