Rock salt is so important for industrial applications that there are some standards in the European Union about how it should be manipulated and treated.
There is a general standard that was approved By CEN on 6 May 2009.
Each country can make its own standard taking the European one as a base. It’s important to stress how rock salt can help in roads’ winter maintenance. The governments have the existent need of controlling the ice and snow on the ways and roads. They must take this responsibility in order to make sure that traveling through the roads in winter isn’t dangerous. Rock salt is a basic good for road security and citizens’ safety during the winter season.
Winter conditions affect every member state in several different ways, at least during around four months each year. That’s why it’s a main obligation for governments to have lots of rock salt readily available in order to clean the roads and ensure everyone’s well being.
As we stated before these standards may vary depending on each country’s preference within the European Union. These standards talk about the characteristics of salt. They cover aspects such as the way salt is to be produced, its grain size, the definition of rock salt, the content of the chloride, its percentage of water, its sulfate content, its packaging, leveling, test reports, amongst others.
Let’s see some cases here.
For example, in the majority of the cases the production of rock salt is defined in the following way:
- The product contains sodium chlourure as an essential component. But there are small differences between the standards of countries, like Estonia’s, whose standards say the following about the grain size of the salt: “The grain has to be 0.25 to 0.4 mm. The mass of the rock salt cannot contain more than 10% finer elements of 0.25 mm and 4.00 mm thick”,
- As well as is the case with Belgium, which states other specifications about rock salt’s grain size: “Salt (NaCl) particle size must vary from 0.15 to 1.2 mm. 1 / salt (NaCl) particle size should go from 0.15 to 1.2 mm.2/output (NaCl) particle size must vary from 0.16 to 3 mm.”
- Another important topic to be covered would be the chloride content; for example in the case of France, following their standards for rock salt, there are two types of purity, Class A> 98%, and Class B> 91%. But in the case of Estonia for example, the Chlorite content (main substance) should be at least 97%.
So as we see there are difference preferences for rock salt’s standards, and they are defined by each country. That’s why it’s so important for a company like MaxiSalt to know all of them in order to export in the most professional way available.
