• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.550-557
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• 2020

Used in the ceramic tile market as a representative building material, relief ceramic tile is showing increased demand recently. Since ceramic tiles are manufactured through a sintering process at over 1,000 ℃ after uniaxial compression molding by loading granule powders into a mold, it is very important to secure the flowability of granular powders in a mold having a relief pattern. In this study, kaolin, silica, and feldspar are used as starting materials to prepare granule powders by a spray dryer process; the surface of the granule powders is subject to hydrophobic treatment with various concentrations of stearic acid. The effect on the flowability of the granular powder according to the change of stearic acid concentration is confirmed by measuring the angle of repose, tap density, and compressibility, and the occurrence of cracks in the green body produced in the mold with the relief pattern is observed. Then, the green body is sintered by a fast firing process, and the water absorption, flexural strength, and durability are evaluated. The surface treatment of the granule powders with stearic acid improves the flowability of the granule powders, leading to a dense microstructure of the sintered body. Finally, the hydrophobic treatment of the granule powders makes it possible to manufacture relief ceramic tiles having a flexural strength of 292 N/cm, a water absorption of 0.91 %, and excellent mechanical durability.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.50-56
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• 2020

Ceramic tile is widely used as a floor or interior decoration of buildings. The main processes are raw material blending, molding, drying, firing, etc., and since dimensional and quality stability are very important, they are generally molded by a dry press method. In ceramic tile molds, there is a liner that can be easily replaced in case of wear. The liner is constantly abrasion due to a continuous pressing process during tile forming, and it is required to be replaced every certain period. Even in the liner, use a wear-resistant fitting material only in areas where wear is concentrated. However, there was a risk that the fitting material was applied to large-sized tile molding due to problems such as damage to the molding machine and decrease in productivity when detached during the actual tile molding process due to weak fitting strength with the liner. Therefore, in this study, thermal-structural analysis for fitting tolerance analysis and structural analysis for fitting force analysis were performed for the shrink fit process of the fitting material.