Third day of Congress: auditorium with lectures more than crowded point to the future of porcelain production in the pole of Santa Gertrudes 421z4u

The third day of the lecture circuit of the 6th Congress of the Ceramic Coating Industry, on June 18, started in full swing. With themes related to the production of porcelain, it was contagious to all participants, which generated debates and questions, raising the technical level of explanation.
The first to contribute to this production and exchange of content has been Cislagui Henrique da Silva, T-COTA Engineering and Industrial Minerals, with a group of very effective raw material for porcelain via wet: the bentonite. Under the theme “Source of plasticity and fundência controlled for porcelain obtained by wet grinding process”, the speaker drew a picture of the current production of coatings in Brazil. Among the highlights he included the growth of porcelain production in recent years and the ongoing process of conformation, and large formats in increasingly smaller thicknesses. The technological challenge is very clear: a mass that s these three trends with stability in burning and increased plasticity, increased productivity.
A major challenge for this production is find the right material, since the availability of plastic clays represents 9% of clays found in Brazil, rate falling to 4% in São Paulo.
And what they are bentonite and how they can help in this process? The name comes from the region where it was discovered in Fort Benton, Wynoming, USA. Its structure, added to the coating manufacturing process, interacts with the environment making it more plastic melting, due to its structure with many cations. Whether in white porcelain or enamel, this addition does not change the viscosity by increasing the mechanical strength and packaging dry, reducing the maximum firing temperature, moreover, the white porcelain tests also found that there is no color change. This addition, and not add cost, returns the white matter plasticity process stolen to withdraw the clay. To further encourage discussion, which points to a possible future of porcelain production in the pole of Santa Gertrudes, Lilian Lima Dias, project coordinator give CCB lectured bend the “dry porcelain mass Development formulated with argillites of the region Santa Gertrudes. ” Introducing the world stage production of coatings, it placed Brazil as the 2nd largest producer and consumer in the world, with production 73% by dry, major process in Santa Gertrudes, and 27% by wet. At that time, the dry production output products competing for the same market, which begins to saturate it, and there is a layer of income than waiting value-added products, such as glazed porcelain.
In a survey conducted tly by the CCB, T-COTA and CNPq were cataloged 25 samples of clay from the region and the material was subjected to the standard dry method. They selected 6 samples and the result was high density and dry strength. This indicates the possibility of using mass developed with Gertrude holy clays in the production of enameled dry processing. Studies are needed to improve the fluidity to enable this process. According to her, the world awaits the second generation Polo floors and no one dominates the production technique via dry as he, and the production of red base using porcelain clay of the region is the technical evolution of this production. It notes that the dry process is more aligned technology sustainability ideas, since it generates energy and water savings. The critical point of the technique is the separation of substances which are grouped in the clay and you need specific and appropriate technology to separate them.
To end the first batch of technical lectures of the day, it was the turn of Fábio G. Melchiades, the Ceramic Tile Centre (CRC), which began bringing interesting data about the evolution of the last 20 years of the porcelain industry. In Brazil, the porcelain currently represents 16% of ceramic production, 85% of enamelled and 15% of technicians. Among the reasons for this success are the force created by the brand marketing on her performance, particularly with respect to low water absorption, the design with the manufacture of large format and the color of light mass.
With this, reiterating the CCB of the lecture, a second generation of coatings is necessary, or else there will be a stagnation in the current process that produces small, low-value-added parts. This new generation would use new, more specific grinding techniques which would allow larger sizes, maintaining the red color, but added value part. Another possibility would be via the production of clear dry mass, using instead of clay, the raw materials of mass clear the wet clay as banking, phyllites, and talc, resulting in a piece that second test ever conducted in semi-industrial production, unrecognizable makes the difference between this production and the white mass wet.
After listing the advantages and disadvantages of each production, Melchiades concludes stating that the main challenge of these new production techniques is the granulation process.