Sanitaryware denotes fitments in bathrooms such as washbasins, toilets, bidets and shower trays all associated with personal hygiene. These items form an essential part of a modern civilised standard of living. However, there are still some 2.5bn people in the world who do not have access to toilets and proper sanitation which to leads to poor hygiene and subsequent illness in many countries.
Almost all sanitaryware is made by slip casting and the major four components of what is known as vitreous china (VC) are quartz, feldspar, ball clay and kaolin. Their main function and problems that can be encountered with incorrect recipes are shown in Table 1 (see panel).
World sanitaryware production is dominated by vitreous china, but fine fireclay (FFC) is an increasingly important segment of the market. In FFC, the pre-fired or calcined clay is the single most important component and can account for over 40%...