Raw materials

  

 

Porcelain - the white gold. We use it every day, judge it by shape, color, pattern and decorations and generally know so little about this material. Yet porcelain is one of the oldest materials that we humans have developed ourselves to give it its shape. The discovery of porcelain goes back to the 10th century before Christ. Whether at that time it was actually porcelain or vessels made of "fine earths" remains a matter of dispute. In order to assess this, a more precise analysis of raw materials and firing temperatures is required, which we will discuss in this section of our product information. 

 


 

 

 

Porcelain usually consists of two different elements:

  • the hard fired porcelain mass (shards), white in the picture above
  • the protective layer (glaze) covered with glass mass, colored in the picture above

 

The present section "Raw Materials" deals with the composition of the body, i.e. the actual body of the porcelain.

   


 

The raw materials of the porcelain body 

 

Porcelain belongs to the large group of ceramics containing clay minerals. In order to understand the composition and effect of the various minerals, an excursion into chemistry is necessary. We explain the essential features of materials science in the porcelain industry in words and pictures. In principle, porcelain (hard porcelain) is made from about 50 parts of porcelain clay (kaolin), 25 parts of quartz (silicon dioxide (SiOz)) and 25 parts of feldspar in its original production.

 

Raw material

Effect

Parts

Mohs

Melting point

Kaoline

Plasticity (Shaping)

50%

6-6,5

1.150 - 1.250 °C

Quartz

Thermal & chemical resistance

25%

7

1.700 °C

Feldspar

Binder (density) & melting accelerator

25%

6-6,5

1.150 - 1.250 °C

 

Each of these components fulfills important functions during production. The higher the quality of these raw materials is selected and processed, the better the quality of the porcelain. In terms of availability and quality of raw materials, Germany has a clear location advantage in Europe, with good occurrences in the Upper Palatinate, Bohemia and Thuringia. 

 

Today, modern porcelain production no longer works "only" with the three classic components. The increasing mechanization as well as the production and further development of minerals and additives allows today in mass production an improvement or optimization by adding further additives. Furthermore, the mixing of raw materials of different origins changes the composition and melting point of the mass. Our diagram above shows a total of 16 different raw materials that a factory uses for the production of hard porcelain. We like to compare it with beer: everyone knows that beer is made from water, hops, malt and original wort. And yet every brand tastes different.

 

The melting points of the respective minerals have a significant influence on the hardness of the tableware.

 

Alumina

Processing

Feldspar

Granules

 

Hubel

 

Kaoline

 

Fuel

 

Mullite

Quartz

Slagger

Sprayer

Occurence of raw materials

 

Additives

 

Water

 

Time

 
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