The influence of the raw material grinding fineness on the brick industry products quality

Abstract

The brick industry development trends have two main directions: high product quality and use of lower quality clays and secondary (recycled) raw materials, The development trends reflect today's market requirements - high-quality materials at low prices. The product quality is approaching that of face bricks, sintered and semisintered products. In this situation, it is important to devote more attention to addressing the problem of raw material (domestic, harmful impurities, secondary...). Wet preparations reach their limits at a grain size not less than 0,5 mm. Dry preparation, fine grinding with adjustable grain sizes between 40 mum and 400 mum is an alternative preparation process in the brick making industry,. The paper gives comparative testing results for lower quality brick clay from Greece, prepared by the classic wet grinding process for the grain size below I min and the dry process for the grain size below 250 mum The results of the ceramic-techno logical mass measurements of both dry and baked products processed according to the mentioned procedures are included. The research was conducted in order to define the technology for the split tiles factory on the basis of the existing brick clay locality near Thessaloniki.