structural clay products
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What are structural clay products?
Structural clay products are ceramic materials used in building construction. These products include building brick, paving brick, terra-cotta facing tile, roofing tile, and drainage pipe. They consist of clay or clayey shales, quartz, and feldspar. The clay gives shape, the quartz gives strength, and the feldspar lowers melting temperatures during firing. Structural clay products are made by mixing natural materials with water, shaping them, and firing them in a kiln. This process gives the clay mixture a permanent bond. These products possess essential qualities such as load-bearing strength, resistance to wear and chemical attack, and an attractive appearance.
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What materials are used to make structural clay products?
Structural clay products consist of 35 to 55 percent clays or argillaceous (clayey) shales, 25 to 45 percent quartz, and 25 to 55 percent feldspar. The clay portion acts as a former, the quartz (silica) serves as a filler, and the feldspar serves as a fluxing agent.
The clays used in brickmaking include surface clays, shales, and fireclays. The color of structural clay products depends on the type of clay and any metals, like manganese, mixed with the clays. They range from whites through grays, buffs, light to dark reds, and into the purple range.
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What are some common examples of structural clay products?
Structural clay products are ceramic materials made for use in building construction. These products consist of natural materials mixed with water, shaped, and then fired in a kiln, creating a lasting bond.
Common examples include:
* Building brick
* Paving brick
* Terra-cotta facing tile
* Roofing tile
* Drainage pipe
* Face brick
* Brick veneer
* Sculptured brick
* Glazed brick and tile
* Decorative brick
* Hollow brick
* Structural tile for floors and walls
* Light traffic pavers
* Quarry tile
* Sewer pipe
* Industrial floor brick
* Drain tile
* Flue liners
* Chimney brick
* Chemical stonewareThese products provide essential properties such as load-bearing strength, wear resistance, chemical attack resistance, and attractive appearance.
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How are structural clay products like bricks and tiles made?
Structural clay products, including bricks and tiles, are created from natural materials like clay, quartz, and feldspar. The clay acts as a former, the quartz as a filler, and the feldspar as a fluxing agent. After mixing these materials with water, the clay is shaped through pressing or extrusion. The formed objects are then dried to remove water and fired in a kiln to achieve a permanent bond. The firing process, done in batches or tunnel kilns, involves gradual heating and cooling. The color of the final product depends on impurities like iron oxides and the kiln's atmosphere.
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What are the main uses of structural clay products in construction?
Structural clay products are ceramic materials used in building construction for their strength, resistance to wear and chemical damage, and appearance.
They are used as:
* Facing materials like face brick, terra-cotta, and glazed tile.
* Load-bearing materials such as building brick and structural tile for walls and floors.
* Paving materials including paving brick and quarry tile.
* Roofing tiles, common in many areas, especially in red and black.
* Chemically resistant materials like sewer pipes and drain tile.The techniques of architecture are the methods by which structures are formed from particular materials. Brick compares well with stone as a structural material because it resists fire and weathering, and it is easy to produce, transport, and lay.
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How do the properties of clay affect the strength and durability of these products?
Structural clay products achieve their strength and durability from their composition, particle size, firing temperature, and microstructure. They consist of clay or shale (35–55%), quartz (25–45%), and feldspar (25–55%). The clay provides shape, quartz adds strength, and feldspar lowers melting temperatures during firing.
During firing, the clay and shale ingredients melt to form a glass that bonds the particles. Crystalline mullite needles grow into this glassy phase, creating a microstructure of large particles in a matrix of fine-grained mullite and glass with large pores.
The ability to bear heavy loads without fracture is the prime property qualifying these products for structural applications. Underfired products have low strength and poor frost resistance due to small pores, while overfired products are strong but brittle due to excess glass.
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structural clay products, ceramic products intended for use in building construction. Typical structural clay products are building brick, paving brick, terra-cotta facing tile, roofing tile, and drainage pipe. These objects are made from commonly occurring natural materials, which are mixed with water, formed into the desired shape, and fired in a kiln in order to give the clay mixture a permanent bond. Finished structural clay products display such essential properties as load-bearing strength, resistance to wear, resistance to chemical attack, attractive appearance, and an ability to take a decorative finish.
In this article the raw materials, properties, and general applications of structural clay products are reviewed. At certain points reference is made to industrial processes employed in the manufacture of structural clay products; for more detailed description of these processes, the reader is referred to the article traditional ceramics.
Raw materials and processing
Structural clay products are made from 35 to 55 percent clays or argillaceous (clayey) shales, 25 to 45 percent quartz, and 25 to 55 percent feldspar. As with all traditional ceramic products, the clay portion acts as a former, providing shaping ability; the quartz (silica) serves as a filler, providing strength to the formed object; and the feldspar serves as a fluxing agent, lowering the melting temperatures of the clay and quartz during firing. The proportions cited above are often found directly in shale deposits, so that blending is often not necessary. In addition, little or no beneficiation, or crushing and grinding of the mined material, is employed. Local clays or shales of highly variable composition are used in order to keep transportation costs as low as possible. The colour of the finished product derives from impurities, most notably iron oxides, present in the raw materials. Colours can range from buff and other light shades of brown through red to black, depending upon whether an oxidizing or reducing atmosphere exists in the kiln.
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In the processing of structural clay products, stiff-mud plastic-forming operations predominate—for example, pressing operations for brick and extrusion for brick or pipe (see ). These processes are described in the article traditional ceramics. Formed objects are usually fired in continuous conveyor belt or railcar operations, with the ware, as it traverses the tunnel kiln, proceeding from room temperature into a hot zone and finally to a cooler zone at the other end.
Properties
The properties exhibited by structural clay products are determined by particle size, firing temperature, and ultimate microstructure. Compared with finer ceramic products such as whitewares, much coarser filler particles are used, and lower firing temperatures are employed—typically in the range of 1,050° to 1,100° C (approximately 1,925° to 2,000° F). At such low temperatures the filler particles (usually crushed quartz) are normally not affected. Instead, the clay or shale ingredients contain sufficient impurities to melt and form a glass, thus bonding the particles together. As is the case with whitewares, crystalline mullite needles grow into this glassy phase. The resulting microstructure consists of large secondary particles embedded in a matrix of fine-grained mullite and glass—all containing a substantial volume of large pores.
Because of the presence of large and small particles in their microstructures, fired clay products have relatively high compressive strengths. This ability to bear relatively heavy loads without fracture is the prime property qualifying these products for structural applications. The size and number of pores is also important. If underfired, structural clay products have low strength and poor resistance to frost and freezing, owing to the presence of many small pores in the clay regions. Overfired ware, on the other hand, has too much glass. It is strong but brittle and is susceptible to failure under mechanical and thermal stress. Furthermore, it is impossible to obtain a good bond when glassy products are used with mortars. Small pores and high glass content are desirable, however, when chemical resistance and imperviousness to water penetration are required.
Products
By some estimates structural clay products make up as much as 50 percent of the entire ceramics market. The industry is highly conservative, with development aimed primarily at automation and labour minimization rather than the introduction of new products.
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There is a wide variety of structural clay products, broadly classified as facing materials, load-bearing materials, paving materials, roofing tile, and chemically resistant materials. Examples of facing materials are face brick, terra-cotta, brick veneer, sculptured brick, glazed brick and tile, and decorative brick. Building brick, hollow brick, and structural tile for floors and walls are examples of load-bearing materials. Paving materials include light traffic pavers, quarry tile, and paving brick—this last product once in more common use than at present. Roofing tiles are quite common in many parts of the world, red and black colours being of particular note. Chemically resistant materials include sewer pipe, industrial floor brick, drain tile, flue liners, chimney brick, and chemical stoneware.
The manufacture, properties, and uses of brick and tile are covered in detail in the article brick and tile.