Porcelain Tiles - A Detailed Guide

What Is Porcelain?

According to Wikipedia, Porcelain is a kind of ceramic material. It is highly used in pottery, tiles, and sanitary ware making industries. Pure and glazed white appearance with translucency and room for painting artistic designs permanently on the surfaces have made porcelain a favorite material for glazed and painted pieces of artistic creation.
The magic ingredients of Porcelain tiles are – 50% of Feldspar, 30-40% of white clay, 15% of Kaolin, and 15% of quartz, along with other fusible materials.

What Is Porcelain Making Process?

It is made by heating clay & other materials, including kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F). Porcelain has much lower moisture and higher density than ceramic. For instance, a ceramic tile making material requires 300Kg/cm2, while porcelain bears 500Kg/cm2. Thus, high-temperature & pressure eliminate the formation of pores and cavities in the mass and grant porcelain an unbeatable toughness, strength, and translucence.
The production of porcelain products consists of the following different methods.

• Forming: It contains traditional shaping techniques such as potter’s wheel, Molding, and some recent methods.
• Glazing: It makes porcelain glazed and impermeable to liquids, dirt, and stain-resistant, and offer decorative appearance. 
• Decoration: Pigmentation by cobalt and copper minerals gives porcelain products a range of colors and hues to obtain a decorative look.
• Firing: The raw material of the paste/body for porcelain making used to fire at high temperature in a kiln to give it a permanent shape, vitrify, and glaze the body. 

Different Types of Porcelain Pottery

For the construction industry, the perspective of porcelain tiles is quite different from the pottery industry. There are four main categories of porcelain tiles manufacture and used in the tiles making industry today. Those are:

1. Full Body: It made from selected materials, which blended, pressed, & fired to get the body of porcelain tiles. Technically, it provides good performance, but the absence of color effects/hues and somewhat repetitive look ruins the charm that comes with other types of porcelain tiles. 
2. Multiple Load: The raw material pressed twice and tiles contain two layers in the body. 25% of thickness comes from the noble categories of materials, while 75% of thickness comes from speckled materials. However, it has limited color choices and the absence of glaze results in less preferred tiles. 
3. Standard & Colored Body: The clay is blended and pressed to create textures on the surfaces, but results in the 2D design without details. However, it has an appealing look and affordable price tags.
4. Twin Pressed: The first press of material contains varied colored mineral get compaction with innovative technologies. The second press compacts the glaze and body together and results in a 3D look with non-pressed decoration. It has high demand so high price.

Click here for more info