Abstract:The dispersing effects of technological operations such as sieving, grinding, soaking and beating on sepiolite fibers in the chemical fiberization process were researched through orthogonal experiments and variance analyses. Optimum parameters and technological procedures were determined. The results show that under the conditions of soluble phosphates as the dispersants, the beating degrees of sepiolite fibers increase at first, then go to be stabilized with the enlargement of sieve pore diameters and the elongation of beating time; soaking operation is not the key factor for sepiolite dispersion; operations of short-time wet-grinding and high-speed or hot-water beating under proper fiber concentrations benefit the difiberization; the leaf-wheel beater is better in dispersing the sepiolite fibers than the pulp miller. The selected technological process and parameters for sepiolite fibers dispersion are as follows: sieving the sepiolite fibers with 8mm diameter sieve holes, then wet grinding for 10 min, finally beat the suspension with a leaf-wheel beater for 0.5h at the fiber/dispersant/water quantity ratios of 1/0.15/15. The beating degree rises to 2.7 times of that of original fibers with this process.