Why You Should Know About Powder Processing
There is a lot more involved in creating your beautiful ceramic tiles than you think. You simply pick out the ones you want from a catalogue or brochure, and they appear at your home, all ready to be installed. Have you ever wondered how they were made?
Like many other clay-based items, ceramic products begin as just a powder. To create a specific end product, this powder undergoes a level of chemical blending and dry blending to ensure that when it is created into a tile, all of these elements will hold together securely.
Powder processing involves mixing the dry ingredients together, while understanding how each powder’s properties will blend with one another. Some of the other actions involved in powder processing include pulverizing, micronizing, air classification, dry blending, and toll processing. These processes can take from a couple of hours for a trial run to determine if the right combinations have been used, to several weeks to grind, sift, procure, blend, and pack a mixture that is more complex. Since finer powders tend to clump, small batch processing can be a more efficient way to do this.
Chemical blending companies also often focus on particle size reduction. For example, when it comes to concrete, irregular or poorly shaped particles can decrease its strength, and the same applies to other items as well. Smaller particles allow for improved packing and aggregate strength, higher reactivity, faster dissolution, and better overall dispersion, among other benefits.
In order for items with a specific microstructural future to fuse successfully, powder processing is a crucial part of the process. Powder processing can also be used for metallurgy, plastics, and is often the premise for injection molding.
Without this blending process, you would not have the elegant flooring you have in your home. So, the next time you look down at your tiles, consider how much actually went into making each one. It might give you an idea of why ceramic tile floors can be pricey.
