Eurit research on body formulation

Eurit, a mining company belonging to the Colorobbia Group, has conducted a study into the formulation of unglazed porcelain tile bodies which until now have been composed almost exclusively of imported raw materials offering a high quality to price ratio. Given the need to contain the increase in unit production costs, research is being conducted to evaluate the possibility of using Italian sourced raw materials. To meet this essential requirement, the Eurit project set itself the primary goal of reducing the percentage of non-domestic sodium feldspar used in the body formulation.
 
The results showed that the partial substitution of sodium feldspar with Eurite E 05-11 (which has a high potassium feldspar and illite content) enables the technological characteristics of the reference body to be maintained. Moreover, while reducing the clay content by just 1%, it has actually improved the mechanical characteristics and the degree of grindability of the slip.
While starting out from a different balance between sodium and potassium feldspar, the two bodies achieve a similar degree of vitrification and very comparable colorimetric characteristics. This justifies more detailed ceramic research with a view to using greater quantities of domestically sourced raw materials, even in bodies that have previously contained a high percentage of imported raw materials.

An in-depth article on the study is published in CWR 89.