Glaze faults in ceramic floor tiles

There has been a considerable increase in the number of consumer complaints over the past two years in relation to problems experienced with glazed floor tiles. The State Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Materials Science Laboratory, Chemistry Centre W.A. have investigated those complaints. The causes of failures were identified as gas occlusions in the glaze. Western Australia's metropolitan area is situated on a dominantly quartz sand plain. The angular quartz particles have a typical Mohs' hardness of 7. This is comparable with that of hard silica glazes. Failure of ceramic tile glazes was attributed to angular quartz particles impinging the surface of the glaze at the bubble sites. The objectives of this work were: 1. To determine whether ceramic tiles are of merchantable quality for domestic use in the Western Australian environment; 2. To determine the extent of bubble concentration in ceramic tile glazes; and 3. To derive a suitable test procedure for the detection and quantification of entrained gas in glazes.