The Secret of Chinese Ceramics’ World Renown

 China’s land area is wide, as the north, south, east and west in the subtropical, temperate, cold zone of the different regions, providing the environment for a variety of geological mineral formation.
China’s geoscientific experts in the 20th century asserted that China’s ceramic raw materials can be roughly the Yangtze River as the boundary to study the geological genesis of non-renewable ceramic mineral raw materials, and to determine the categories of such mineral raw materials and the interconnectedness with the ceramic industry.
Domestic geologists generally agree that south of the Yangtze River is weathering residual disposable clay minerals, is weathered from acidic and neutral aluminum silicate rocks, generated kaolin, porcelain stone and other ceramic raw materials.
Mineral mixtures contain some iron, titanium and other mineral impurities, mica minerals are also generated together in the process, and these mineral substances have fewer organic impurities, the mineral crystal granularity is coarser, the color is more moist and white characteristics, is the main raw material of the south of the porcelain production.

Main ceramic raw materials

Ceramic production application of rich resources, a wide range of varieties, can be roughly divided into plastic raw materials, barren raw materials and fusible raw materials of three major categories, including kaolin – quartz – feldspar ternary system of ceramic billets of the vast majority of raw materials.

• KAOLIN

China has rich reserves of kaolin resources and a long history of use. Continental Europe at the beginning of the 17th century recognized the kaolin in the production of porcelain in China’s     role and status. The name Kaolin is also derived from the fact that it comes from China.

• PORCELAIN STONE

Porcelain stone occupies an important position in the history of China’s ceramic development. Porcelain stone is a quartz and sericite as the main rock mineral. Because china stone contains the basic components that make up a porcelain blank, porcelain blanks were made from a single china stone until the Yuan Dynasty in China. Today, china stone is still an important member of the ceramic raw material family. Because of the potassium and sodium contained in the ceramic stone, in the porcelain formula, ceramic stone often instead of feldspar to play the role of the flux.

China’s northern china stone deposits are huge, mainly concentrated in Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong, where some minerals can be used hundreds or thousands of years. According to the latest information reports, in Jiangxi Yiyang Dayuan Ling of the porcelain stone mine to explore the country’s largest high-quality porcelain stone mine, and is expected to reach 1.7 billion tons of prospective resources. This resource advantage for the sustainable development of China’s ceramic industry has laid a solid foundation.

• SILICEOUS RAW MATERIALS

Siliceous raw material refers to the rock or sandy raw material with SiO2 as the main component. China is rich in siliceous resources, mainly concentrated in central and southern China, followed by east, northwest, northeast and north China, and less in the southwest.
 Siliceous raw material is one of the main components in ceramic body, this raw material in the dosage of 20% to 40% of the ingredients, second only to kaolin. Different mineral types of siliceous raw materials give different physical and chemical properties of ceramic body by the ceramic enterprise pay special attention to.

• FELDSPAR RAW MATERIALS

                                                                                                    Feldspar raw materials include potassium feldspar, sodium feldspar and calcium feldspar.

                                                                         Potassium feldspar is mostly used in body, while sodium feldspar and calcium feldspar are mostly used in glazes.

• TALC

After the 1970s, Shandong Silicate Research and Design Institute, Zibo Porcelain Factory and Boshan Ceramics Factory developed a successful talc fine daily porcelain, of which the talc dosage of 70% to 75%, which makes the abundance of talc in Shandong resources in the ceramics industry has been a large number of applications. Currently, talc fine porcelain has been expanded from Shandong to Hebei, Guangdong, Guangxi and other major porcelain areas, nearly 100 manufacturers.

• WOLLASTONITE

Wollastonite (chemical formula CaO-SiO2) is a calcium metasilicate mineral, which does not contain organic matter or water of crystallization, and has a very small drying and firing shrinkage, with a coefficient of expansion of only 6.7×10-6/°C. It is also suitable for rapid firing, especially for the production of architectural sanitary ceramics.
After the 1980s, wollastonite is widely used in the production of building sanitary ceramics. China is rich in wollastonite resources, second only to India in the world. In 1975, China has proved that there are 31 wollastonite production sites, and its reserves are about 132.65 million tons.

• PLASTER

Plaster (CaSO4-2H2O) is a soft mineral with chemical composition of calcium sulfate dihydrate, which can form two kinds of gypsum crystals, α-hemihydrate gypsum and β-hemihydrate gypsum through different processing techniques, and is used to make ceramic forming molds in ceramic industry.
 Plaster is an auxiliary material in ceramic industry, but it plays an important role in the quality of ceramic products and is one of the important materials in ceramic industry.

• ADDITIVE

Ceramic additives are in order to meet the requirements of the process and performance in the production process by adding a variety of chemical additives commonly known.
Ceramic additives have a solution to the coagulation (dilution, water reduction), slow coagulation, promote coagulation, plasticizing (strong), adhesion, suspension, lubrication, de-foaming, grinding, corrosion, hydrophobicity, demolding and so on.
Since the 80’s, the role of ceramic additives in the ceramic industry with the continuous development of the ceramic industry has attracted more and more attention. In addition to organic and inorganic substances, the two complexes and derivatives have also been developed. The application range of additives is becoming more and more extensive, throughout the daily-use ceramics, building sanitary ceramics, refractory materials, high-tech ceramics and many other fields, and play an important role in improving the quality and performance of ceramic products.

                                                                                                   WELLHOPE MATERIALS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD

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