Rheological and Fired Properties of Malaysia Clay from Ipoh (Perak) and its Application in Ceramic Tiles

Abstract

Clay is an important raw material in manufacturing of ceramic products especially ceramic tiles. Local clays are important for demand of local ceramic tile industries especially the advantages in terms of transportation cost. The research work is aimed to provide scientific data on rheological behavior and fired properties of Ipoh clay from Perak, Malaysia and its application in ceramic tiles. The studied clay was characterized by mineralogical analysis and chemical composition to determine the mineralogy of Ipoh clay. Rheological behavior was identified by deflocculant demand, thixotropy and zeta potential. Fired properties were determined by linear fired shrinkage, water absorption, bulk density, apparent porosity and fired colour. The Ipoh clay is considered suitable to be used for wet milling process in manufacturing of ceramic tiles due to highly negatively charge from the outcome of zeta potential. Ipoh clay is considered as dimensional stable with range of linear fired shrinkage of 2.5 to 3.5% from firing temperature from 1000 – 1050 °C. Firing temperature of 1050 °C – 1250 °C shows drastic increase in linear fired shrinkage from about 3.5% to above 10% together with drastic reduction in water absorption from about 19% to 5%. Ipoh clay is considered not suitable to be used in high amount for application in porcelain tiles that need water absorption of almost zero together with low in apparent porosity. However, Ipoh clay has good fired colour, which is suitable for technical polished porcelain tiles.