Development of glaze compositions for floor tile without engobe

Glazes are fundamental materials which provide physical advantages and aesthetic appearance to ceramic bodies. Engbobes provide white surface for decorating and applied between glazes and ceramic bodies. Glaze must be transparent if decorating applied between glaze and engobes. The aim of this work is the development of glaze compositions which has high opacity and different gloss amount for tiles without engob layer. Thus more lean production can be achieved by one application instead of two applications. For this purpose, glaze systems consist of Anorthite-Zircon-Quartz-Amorphous phase and Diopside-Zircon-Amorphous phase were developed. Relation between amount of phases of the system and surface morphology, microstructure was investigated. As a result of work more opaque glaze compositions than engobe were achieved in both systems. Also the key parameters determined for controlling gloss and thermal expansion. At the end of the work industrial scale applications done for two chosen compositions. Color loss seen in diopside containing composition. Staining resistance and surface abrasion resistance of samples in the standard limit. Keywords: Glaze, engobe, anorthite, diopside, surface morpology.