Ceramics is one of the primary markets for industrial minerals. Constituting about 90% of the ceramic body is the clay support, with the remainder of the body taken up by glaze the final stage in the formulation of a ceramic piece.
Ceramic glazes are a critical component of ceramic technology and are designed to impart all of the desired benefits of a ceramic piece to the final product. Glaze, essentially a surface coating of glass, is applied before the firing process and matures during firing to bond with the ceramic surface.
While the appearance of the glaze is an important aspect of the ceramic body (ie. imparting visual effects such as transparency, opaqueness, gloss, matte, smoothness, texture) its structural contributions to the ceramic formulation are abundant: given the correct mixes, glazes can provide enhanced mechanical strength, resistance to abrasion, chemical durability, and resistance to liquids and gases.
To achieve this...