Investigation of parameters affecting deformation and water absorption criteria in floor and wall tile production

In floor and wall tile production facilities; production stages, deformation and water absorption problems encountered in production are explained with experimental data. The aim of the thesis is to prevent poor quality by examining the causes of deformation and water absorption in the facility that produces floor and wall tiles. Deformation is planar faults in the tile and is an undesirable situation that causes very serious problems in the application and subsequent stages. Water absorption is also a factor that will reduce the useful life of the tile. The experiments consist of two parts. In the first part, the causes of deformation problems are investigated. On deformation; masse, glaze and engop interactions were examined, raw material chemical analyzes and recipe analyzes were made. As a result, the importance of thermal expansion compatibility of masse with glaze and engob was determined. It has been determined in the experimental studies that the addition of feldspar reduces the thermal expansion coefficient of the body, and since feldspars affect the thermal expansion, it also affects the dimensional deformation. In the second part, water absorption experiments were carried out. In the water absorption experiments, the effect of the porosity in the tile and the melting raw materials on the water absorption was investigated. As a result, it has been determined that the pore volume and water absorption are inversely proportional, and the melting raw material reduces the water absorption. As the firing time increases, the distance between the pores (the spaces between the granules) decreases as the firing time increases, since the sintering (that is, the process of fusing the particles with each other as a solid with heat) will be more. In summary; the pores are reduced and the water absorption value decreases. With the increase of the press pressure, the tile body will become more dense, that is, the distance between the grains will decrease, and the water absorption decreases. In the experimental studies, it was determined that the volume of the pores decreased with the increase in volumetric density.