Effects of particle size and intimacy of mixture about reactivity during the firing of porcelain tile body

• Grant number: 10/00941-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2010
• End date: March 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Anselmo Ortega Boschi
• Grantee: Flavia Contartesi
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Knowing the growth of the Brazilian ceramic tile sector and their expression at the world scenery, the present paper works to contribute to the study of factoring viability of porcelain tiles by dry process. The technology of bodies preparation by "dry process" can be considered the biggest technologic innovation that occurred in the ceramic tiles sector in Brazil. Parallelly, at the last five years, the porcelain tiles factoring in Brazil has experienced a great increase, following the worldwide trend of production sector diversification. The porcelain tiles show great technical properties combined with particulars esthetical effects, which allow the development of ceramic products with the highest aggregated value, which have shown good market segments acceptation, that was not reached by traditional ceramic tiles. Seeing that the Brazilian dry process bodies generally present lower intimacy of mixture and bigger particle size when compared with those made by wet process, the present study validates the isolated effects of these two variables about reactivity porcelain tile bodies during firing. The results comprehension will allow understanding the importance of these parameters on ceramic tiles factoring and to identify the needed adjusts at the nowadays used technology for dry process bodies preparation, looking to contribute for the vitalization of this method. (AU)