Use of a new borate raw material for glaze formulation

The Rio Tinto Minerals company has developed a new borate (E-4972), which can be used in glaze formulation (patent WO 2007/148101). This new borate, synthesised by low-temperature calcination, fundamentally contributes five oxides: silicon oxide (SiO(2)), aluminium oxide (Al(2)O(3)), boron oxide (B(2)O(3)), calcium oxide (CaO), and sodium oxide (Nap), its content in B(2)O(3) being between 10 and 11% by weight. It is largely amorphous, and quartz is the major crystalline phase present. The characteristics of this new borate, such as its low solubility and ability readily to form glassy phase, enable it to be used as a raw material in glaze compositions. Its suitability for glaze formulation has been the result of several years' research in collaboration with the Instituto de Tecnologia Ceramica. In this paper, the feasibility has been studied of fabricating ceramic glazes by using a new synthetic borate raw material that contributes boron to the glaze composition without this needing to be done in fritted form. It has been possible to obtain fired glazes with similar technical and aesthetics characteristics to those obtained from industrial glaze compositions that contain typical frits in their compositions, thus enabling glazes to be formulated by using the new synthetic boron raw material. The results obtained show that this new raw material (E-4972) is particularly appropriate for use in producing glazes with low gloss at high temperature.