Lowering the firing temperature and firing time of sanitaryware body

In this thesis, the effect of chemical composition on the sintering behavior of sanitarware body is investigated in order to lower firing temperatures. At first, the amount of mullite, quartz and glassy phases were estimated by using ratio of slopes method, as 18.8 %, 22.1 % and 59.1 %, respectively. These results were used to identify the chemical composition of glassy phase that formed in standard sanitarware body. The standard sanitarware glassy phase composition was taken as a reference and new glassy phase compositions were prepared by using seger formulations. Hot stage microscope was used to analyze thermal behavior of glass compositions. Na2O/K2O, Na2O+K2O, SiO2/Al2O3, CaO/MgO and SiO2+Al2O3 were the parameters that were taken into account in order to obtain new glassy phase compositions which are formed rapidly and have low softening point and viscosity. As a result of modifying with these parameters SAT-2 glassy phase was obtained with the softening point of 1150ºC while the softening point of standard sanitaryware glassy phase composition was 1242ºC. The viscosity values were also lowered. Finally new sanitaryware body formulations were prepared based on these glassy phase compositions and deformation-densification behaviors of bodies were studied. Besides the effect of particle size and also alternative raw material were investigated. Consequently, the effect of glassy phase viscosity on the densification and deformation behavior of sanitaryware body was determined. Also, industrial trials were performed in Serel Seramik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş. A new sanitaryware body was sintered at 50ºC lower than standard body.