Development of glaze suitable for digital printing technique in porcelain tile production

In the 21st century, with the rapid development in the digital age, innovations in the field of design have become an important point in the sale of ceramic products. Various applications made with the new technologies developed have affected the product development processes extremely positively and made significant contributions to the ceramic industry. In this context, the inkjet printing system offers design flexibility and diversity by allowing high-resolution and multi-color patterns to be applied to ceramic surfaces faster and more efficiently. In addition, it makes it possible to produce special and personalized designs according to needs, enabling faster, easier and more effective response to customer demands. This thesis aims to develop matte and glossy glaze compositions suitable for porcelain tiles produced by digital printing methods in ceramic tile factories and to create new glaze recipes. Glaze researches were carried out to obtain the desired matte and glossy surface textures by minimizing the surface defects encountered in the ceramic industry. In addition, it aimed to examine the performance of colors printed by the inkjet printing method by adding raw materials containing different oxides and to understand the effects of these additions on color perception. The developed glaze recipes were applied on raw tiles that were ball milled in jet mills, angoped, and fired rapidly in the laboratory environment. The spectrometer and gloss meter examined the color values (L*, a*, b*) and gloss values of the fired glazes. As a result of the trials, production trials were carried out for the recipes that conformed to the desired values and tested whether they met the surface standards. Among the recipes tested in the production trials, the recipe that provided abrasion resistance, scratch resistance, acid resistance, and deformation in the appropriate range after baking was determined as the production recipe. This study offers important contributions to increase the applicability of digital printing technology in ceramic tile production and to improve the aesthetic and functional properties of products.