High strength diopside containing porcelain tiles

Abstract

A new diopside based porcelain tile is developed. Raw materials containing a frit crystallising to diopside. Ukrainian clay, calcite, magnesite and quartz have formulated so as to form diopside during firing and sintered in an industrial firing kiln. The diopside based porcelain tile can be sintered in a similar fast firing cycle to conventional porcelain tile. Shrinkage values varied between 7.0-9.5 % depending on raw materials composition. By using ordinary raw materials, diopside tiles can be produced at much higher whiteness values than conventional porcelain tiles. This presents a great cost advantage for obtaining superwhite porcelain tiles. It is also reported that high strength tiles can be realized by using large amount of frit which provide high crystallinity.