Abstract
A significant part of the ceramic slab market is today focused on the realization of
furniture elements such as tables and kitchen tops. These products with high added value require a quality
particularly high in terms of aesthetics and stringent technical specifications.
In this context, the final quality of the product is strongly dependent on the quality of the semi-finished
inorganic base such as enamels, engobes and glues used in the production of these products.
In particular, additives added to the suspensions of these semi-finished products play a key role, since
are used in the process of decoration of the ceramic support. Additives are
mainly used to modulate the rheological properties of the suspensions and strongly influence the
process of deposition of dispersed inorganic components.
The aim of the thesis is to improve the quality of ceramic products through a
refined characterisation of additives and suspensions based on them. There are currently numerous
gaps in the control procedures normally used in industry: the methods known are
excessively complex for everyday use in an industry quality control ceramic laboratory or a ceramic glaze and colour producer.
From an experimental point of view, rapid methods requiring limited human and instrumental resources have been developed.
The development of methods involved the main types of additives as suspensors, adhesives, levellers and lengthening dryers. In addition, the study of the nature of the suspensions to verify the mechanism of action of the different additives.
|