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What is a tile?
Ceramic and Porcelain tiles are flat, thin items made of clay, silica, fluxes, coloring and other raw materials. They are generally used to pave floors and cover walls and facades.
The clay used to make the slab may be for red firing or white firing. Both the floor tiles and the wall tiles are impermeable ceramic tiles that are normally made using a clay slab and vitreous coating: ceramic glaze.
How is Porcelain Tile Manufactured?
Raw Materials
Porcelain tile has a low absorption rate and an extremely durable wear resistant surface. This is because of the combination of special clays and high kiln temperatures utilized during the manufacturing process. Together, these materials and the firing process create dense and durable tile.
The process begins with clay and primary components characterized by small particles of feldspar or flint, and silica. These raw materials are crushed using jaw crushers, hammer mills, and ball mills.
The Manufacturing Process
The bulk mixture of selected clay and minerals is mixed with water and pumped into large, rotating cylindrical mills. Here, the materials are ground into a uniform and homogenous material with the consistency of a milk shake. This material is called body-slip.
Body Formation
Now the moisture from the body-slip is evaporated by a spray dryer burner, creating a dry clay powder of uniformly sized fine grains. This dry clay is then put into molds within a hydraulic press, where it is molded under pressure to form greenware (name of the tile prior to being fired).
Bisque-firing
After being shaped, this greenware is dried again by bisque-firing, meaning it is heated at a relatively low temperature to further reduce the moisture content, vaporize unwanted elements and minimize shrinkage during the final firing process.
Glazing
The material later travels down to glaze lines where various types of glazes are applied to the surface. Glaze is a layer of decorative glass finish applied or fired onto a tiles body.
Firing
The glazed greenware now undergoes a 45 50 minutes firing of 2300 degree Fahrenheit temperature. This causes the glaze to fuse to the body of the tile. Also, this is the key process that makes a tile very hard, durable and impact resistant. The high temperature treatment enables a high percentage of solid content in the tile as well.
Tiles, anywhere/any place
The wide range of ceramic products currently available on the market is conditioned by the different uses of this construction material. Depending on their use, there are different types of products with different characteristics. They are currently used for floors and facing.
Floor Tiles:
* Interior house floors.
* Exterior paving (terraces).
* Floors of public buildings (hospitals, schools, etc.)
* Different floors (swimming pools, factory floors...)
Facing
* Interior facing of houses (kitchens, bathrooms, etc.).
* Exterior facing (terraces)
* Different facing
