Floor tile glass-ceramic glaze for imrpovement of glaze surface properties

Autores: Yekta, B.E.|Alzadeh, P.|Rezazadeh, L.
Fuente: J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.
26 (16), 3809-3812
2006

Simultaneous improvement of surface hardness and glossiness of floor tile glaze, without changing its firing temperature, was the main purpose of the present paper. Thus, various glazes in the system of CaO-MgO-SiO2-Al2O3-ZrO2 were prepared and their crystallization behaviours within a fast firing cycle were investigated. With increasing amounts of calcium and magnesium oxdies to base glass, the optimum glass-ceramic glaze was obtained. The results showed that with increasing of CaO and MgO part weights in frit, the crystallization peak temperature was gradually decreased and the intensities of diopside and zirconium silicate were increased. The comparison of micro hardness for the optimum glass ceramic glaze derived in this work with a traditional one used in floor tile industry indicates an improvement of 21%. It was found that the glaze hardness not only depends on the amount and type of crystalline phases, but also on the residual glass composition. Furthermore, it was observed that the glaze micro hardness is only slightly affected by thermal expansion mismatch of body and glaze.