Production of zircon-free opaque frits and development of fast fired wall tile glazes

Wall tile glazes with a smooth surface texture, high glossiness, and whiteness are usually based on zirconium containing frits. However, these frits are quite expensive and therefore, there have recently been certain attempts to lower the production cost such as taking suitable glass-ceramic glaze systems into an account. The design of a glass-ceramic glaze for this type of tiles should ensure that the selected frit precursor is technically and commercially compatible with the manufacturing conditions generally used in the production of glazed ceramic wall tiles. In this study, low zircon containing and zircon-free, frit-based, glossy opaque glass-ceramic glazes for single fast fired wall tiles were produced by optimizing the CaO/MgO and adjusting the Al2O3/alkali ratios in the starting frit compositions. In this study, new glass-ceramic based frits of low zircon containing and/or zircon-free frits of single fast-fired wall tile glossy opaque glazes were produced, characterised and adapted to the industrial working conditions. The newly developed glazes were passed the relevant TS EN ISO 10545 standard tests successfully.Keywords: Fast-firing, Glass-ceramic, Zircon-free opaque wall tile glaze.