An Application of Mixture Design to Ceramic Tile Formulation

The methodology of mixture design presents an alternative for the investigation and optimization of ceramic formulations. The behaviour of the raw materials can be evaluated in a mixture upon application of this methodology. This methodology usually is applied to systems in which the number of raw materials is smaller than four. This hinders its application at industrial level at which sometimes up to ten raw materials are used in a formulation. This contribution aims to test the viability of application of this methodology in a stoneware tile complex system composed of nine raw materials. The application of the technique was evaluated in fired product properties such as water absorption, linear shrinkage and apparent density. A linear mathematical model was chosen which was fitted well to the studied properties and presents a high quality of prediction.