Development of red wall tile composition by dry grinding process

The dry milling of ceramic raw materials offers advantages in comparison with the wet milling process. The dry grinding process is an energy saving process. The dry process strongly diminishes the thermal consumption because of the spray dryers were not used in this process. In this study, the effects of dry grinding on wall tile composition are investigated with experimental design method. Experiments were designed as 2431 multi-level factorial design, individual effects of main five factors (temperature, clay 1, clay 2, clay 3 and feldspar) and their interactions were determined. 24 formulations are prepared with territorial clays (Turgutlu/Manisa/Turkiye region) and feldspar. The samples were characterized before and after firing by using XRD, TG, DTA, EDX and SEM. The physical properties (linear shrinkage, flexural strength and water absorption) were measured. Results were analyzed by MINITAB 14 statistical software program. Keywords: Dry Grinding, Wall Tile, Experiment Design, Red Firing Body, Microstructure