Ceramic Raw Materials Specs

CERAMIC RAW MATERIALS SPECS FOR
CERAMIC TILES MANUFACTURING
NOVEMBER 2014
FOREWORD
Ceramic tiles are defined as “"Thinness plates made of clay, silica, fluxes, colouring
and other materials generally used for flooring, walls and facades"
The body of a ceramic tile is based in a balanced blend of raw materials that allow it to
provide plasticity and moulding (clays) and non plastic (feldspar) materials.
1. CERAMIC RAW MATERIALS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The characteristics listed below are the required ones to ensure that raw materials are
suitable for the ceramic tiles manufacturing.
Lack of one of these characteristics does not preclude a raw material; it can be
compensated by others in the formula.
Generally speaking, it is required:
 A proper behaviour during the milling process. In this case the percentage of
soluble salts has to be low.
 Good moulding behaviour during pressing stage, obtaining a proper bulk

density and mechanical resistance results.
 Linear shrinkage below 8% in the firing range from 1150ºC up to 1200ºC
 Low content of impurities that may cause defects in the final product such as
sulphates, organic matter, etc.
These requirements are matched by the illitic clays, kaolinitc and illitic-chloritic clays
with a calcium carbonate percentage not exceeding 7%.
2. RAW MATERIALS SELECTION CRITERIA
2.1.. General criteria.
In the ceramic tiles body it is made by mixing natural clays with a range of quartz
percentages with low carbonates percentage in order to achieve the maximum results
of compaction with the suitable plasticity.
Natural clays, as plastic raw materials, are acting as a suspending in wet-milling,

facilitating moulding of the parts and providing the necessary mechanical strength for
handling.
Clays mixture is furnishing a low porosity to the finished product and also a high
mechanical strength after firing.
This low porosity is achieved in the glassy phase formation during the firing stage by
using raw materials that provide a suitable melting of the composition.
Behaviour during the firing stage.
The body of a ceramic tile with proper melting is showing, after firing (1120 - 1200 ° C),
a linear shrinkage between 4 and 8%, and water absorption less than 6%
The porosity specs are usually achieved by the usage of raw materials furnishing alkali
oxides in grater or leasing extends.
The contribution of alkaline oxides are reducing firing range and are also increasing
the tiles deformation, so that, clays with calcium carbonate content higher than 7% are
not considered suitable for floor tiles manufacturing.
Coloration of the body.
The coloration of the body is delimited by the colouring oxides content, mainly iron
oxide.
As a general rule, we may consider:
 For a standard red body, iron oxide percentage use to be greater than 5%.
 For a standard porcelain body, iron oxide percentage might be lower than 2%.
Behaviour during the milling stage.
As the mixture of raw materials is going to be performed using a wet-milling process, it

has to be taken in account the difficulty of deflocculation of the composition, either
because some of the clays have an excessive plasticity or by the presence of soluble
salts flocculants (sulfates).
The maximum range of the soluble sulfate content in the clays used in wet-milling
process has to be lower than 0.2%.
The plasticity index of clays range is between 8 and 22; although excessive plasticity
clays can also be used in the formula if the proportion in the composition of the paste is
very low.
Behaviour during the pressing stage.
The tiles will be shaped by a pressing process. From the viewpoint of the
characteristics of the clays, the plasticity is helping to increase the compactness of the
pressed tiles.
Impurities.
Body and glaze firing will be performed simultaneously (single firing); so that there may
be interferences between the during the body degassing when glaze is melted.
Because of this, raw materials may have the least amount of compounds able to suffer
decomposition: Especially if decomposition is occurring at high temperatures.
Impurities such as sulphates and organic matter are problematic because of they
decompose at high temperatures; so that the montmorillonite clays are not
recommended.
Parameter which is measuring the amount of compounds able to suffer decomposition

is called loss on ignition (LOI). For floor tiles this parameter might not be higher than
6%.
Non plastic raw material: Feldspar.
Feldspars in a porcelain formula are totally compulsory and its percentage in the
formula use to be around 40%.
Feldspars in a red body formula are not compulsory but if the red clays available in
Saudi Arabia are not getting the required specs in terms of raw bulk density, LOI and
water absorption, it might be included in the red body formula.
Feldspars are increasing the body permeability facilitating drying and degassing
process during the firing. And are also improving raw compaction, and decreasing firing
shrinkage.
As a fluxing media, feldspars are forming vitreous phase decreasing the firing
temperature necessary to achieve the desired porosity.
Feldspars suitability is obtained by fusion cone assay which is showing feldspars

melting degree plus the amount of impurities contained therein.
Feldspar mostly used for ceramic floor tiles are mixed feldspars. They contain 4.0 to
6.5% K2O and have a K2O / Na2O ratio = 1 - 2.
RED BODY RAW MATERIALS
SAMPLES OF RED BODY CLAYS
Clay 1
Illítica clay with a tempering and melting behaviour and with a low percentage of
alkaline carbonates.
SiO2 60,2 – 63,0 %

Al2O3 19,2 – 17,0 %
Fe2O3 7,7 – 6,7 %
CaO 1,8 – 1,3 %
Chemical analysis MgO 0,8 – 1,5 %
Na2O 0,35 – 0,2 %
K2O 5,0 – 3,0 %
TiO2 0,85 – 0,9 %
LOI 4,6 – 5,8 %
Clay 2
Illítico-kaolinite clay, very plastic and melting and with a low percentage of
alkaline carbonates.
SiO2 57,5 – 62,0 %

Al2O3 21,9 – 18,0 %
Fe2O3 7,7 – 6,3 %
CaO 0,6 – 1,5 %
Na2O 0,4 – 0,1 %
K2O 3,5 – 4,0 %
TiO2 1,1 – 0,8 %
LOI 6,3 – 5,7 %
Clay 3
Illítico-kaolinite clay, very plastic and melting and with a low percentage of
alkaline carbonates.; although less plastic and more refractory than CLAY 2.
SiO2 59,4 – 61,0 %

Al2O3 23,0 – 19,0 %
Fe2O3 6,0 – 6,4 %
CaO 1,2 – 1,4 %
Na2O 0,2 – 0,1 %
K2O 3,4 – 3,7 %
TiO2 0,6 – 0,8 %
LOI 5,6 – 6,1 %
Clay 4
Very low compactness illite clay, plastic and melting with a high content of
alkaline carbonates
SiO2 54,7 – 57,0 %

Al2O3 20,1 – 16,0 %
Fe2O3 6,4 – 5,6 %
CaO 2,4 – 4,5 %
Na2O 0,14 – 0,1 %
K2O 4,6 – 4,0 %
TiO2 0,9 – 0,6 %
LOI 7,8 – 9,5 %
PORCELAIN RAW MATERIALS
SAMPLES OF PORCELAIN CLAYS
Clay 1
SiO2 58 %
Al2O3 27 %
Fe2O3 0,8 %
CaO 0,3 %
Chemical analysis MgO 0,5 %
Na2O 0,6 %
K2O 2%
TiO2 1,3 %
LOI 5,5 – 7,5 %
Clay 2
SiO2 64 %
Al2O3 23 %
Fe2O3 0,9 %
CaO 2,5 %
Chemical analysis MgO 0,3 %
Na2O 0,5 %
K2O 2%
TiO2 1,3 %
LOI 5,5 – 7,5 %
SAMPLES OF PORCELAIN FELSPARS
Feldspar 1
SiO2 65 %
Al2O3 18 %
Fe2O3 0,5 %
CaO 2%
Chemical analysis
MgO 2,5 %
Na2O 8%
K2O 0,3 %
TiO2 0,4 %
Feldspar 2
SiO2 68 %
Al2O3 18 %
Fe2O3 0,1 %
CaO 0,6 %
Chemical analysis
MgO 0,05 %
Na2O 11 %
K2O 0,07 %
TiO2 0,12 %

Ceramic Raw Materials Specs

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ceramic Raw Materials Specs

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ceramic Raw Materials Specs

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CERAMIC RAW MATERIALS SPECS FOR

CERAMIC TILES MANUFACTURING

1. CERAMIC RAW MATERIALS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Generally speaking, it is required:

 Good moulding behaviour during pressing stage, obtaining a proper bulk

 Linear shrinkage below 8% in the firing range from 1150ºC up to 1200ºC

2.1.. General criteria.

Natural clays, as plastic raw materials, are acting as a suspending in wet-milling,

Behaviour during the firing stage.

As a general rule, we may consider:

Behaviour during the milling stage.

As the mixture of raw materials is going to be performed using a wet-milling process, it

Behaviour during the pressing stage.

Parameter which is measuring the amount of compounds able to suffer decomposition

Non plastic raw material: Feldspar.

Feldspars suitability is obtained by fusion cone assay which is showing feldspars

SAMPLES OF RED BODY CLAYS

SiO2 60,2 – 63,0 %

SiO2 57,5 – 62,0 %

SiO2 59,4 – 61,0 %

SiO2 54,7 – 57,0 %

SAMPLES OF PORCELAIN CLAYS

You might also like