Raw material from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, to obtain sandstone porcelain

Currently, the production of the ceramic industry of the River Great of the North she is restricted to the manufacture of bricks and roofing tiles. development of new ceramic products of bigger added value, such as gres covering porcelanato, using regional raw materials is of basic importance for the growth of the local ceramic industry and economic development of the region. In this work, they had been studied raw materials as kaolin, sodico feldspato and quartz of the State of the Great River of the North for the attainment of an covering of the gres type porcelanato of base white.The ceramic masses had been prepared by the process saw humid. The body-of-tests they had been conformed by uniaxial prensagem of 40MPa, dried in 110 deg C and burnt between 1160 and 1240 deg, used a cycle of fast burning (approximately 60min.). The qualitative analysis of the formed phases disclosed silica, mullite e sodico feldspato after the sintering. The technological properties of burning evaluated they had been: linear retraction, water absorption, apparent specific mass, porosity and breaking strength to the flexal (shipment of 3 points). Results show that raw materials proceeding from the State of the Great River of North could be used in processes for gres porcelanato, therefore they present characteristics technological, similar chemistry, physics and to the standard of reference and the data of literature. (author)