Developing of high wearing resistance floor tile glazes based on the frit with ZrO2-CaO-MgO-SiO2 (ZrCMS)

To obtain suitable glazes for coating traditional ceramic bodies, frits basedinitial batches easily adapting to fast firing process are used. In this study,abrasion resistant glazes for floor tiles were developed by compositionalmodifications, having primarily taken the diopsite based frit compositions intoaccount, industrial suitability of which has already been determined.Besides high abrasion properties and refractive indices of diopsite crystals, theyhave an advantage of holding the iron coming from some of the initial glaze rawmaterials as an impurity in their lattices in the form of Fe2+ ion. Consequently,undesired coloring effect of iron ions is prevented. Therefore, the diopsite crystalsare playing an effective role on achieving white colored tile glazes. Glaze recipesdeveloped during this study were applied onto the floor tile bodies and fast firedunder industrial working conditions. Final products have undergone Harcourt,abrasion resistance, acid and base tests. Moreover, optical parameters of glazeswere determined and X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) were made. As a result, matteand semi-matte glazes, which are compatible for fast fired floor tiles and exhibithigh whiteness and abrasion resistance, were developed.Keywords: Floor tiles, glaze, diopsite, fast firing.