Clay
Product Benefits
Clays have a wide usage within glaze and engobes production and play an important role, especially for their white firing colour and rheological properties.
Within Sibelco we have several clays deposits in Europe, including the UK, Germany and Russia, where Sibelco extracts and processes clays that can be used for both engobe and glaze application.
For engobes:
- Drives the viscosity and rheological properties of the engobe
- Keeps in suspension the other raw materials inside the slip
- Reduces the thermal dilatation of the engobe in order to match the dilation of the ceramic body
- White firing colour which allows to the usage of zircon inside the engobe formulation to be minimized.
For glazes:
- Used mainly to improve the capacity of the glaze to remain in suspension into the slip,
- Al2O3 carrier: when the glaze melts this oxide stabilizes the glaze characteristics
- Reduces thermal dilatation of the glaze in order to couple with the dilation of the system body-engobe.
Technical Details
Other clays grade are available, please contact your Sibelco office
| Clay | Country of origin | Chemical Analysis % | Carbon | Residue %< | Particle Size %< | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Products | SiO2 | TiO2 | AI2O3 | Fe2O3 | Na2O | K2O | CaO | L.O.I | 125µm | 10µm | 2µm | ||
| Opal DBX-2 | UA | 55 | 1.3 | 30 | 0.85 | 0.4 | 2 | 0.4 | 9.5 | <0.1 | 2 | 98 | 92 |
| Opal DBY-1 | UA | 56 | 1.4 | 29 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2 | 0.4 | 8.5 | <0.1 | 2 | 97 | 86 |
| Opal DBK-2E | UA | 65 | – | 22 | 1.4 | – | – | – | 6 | – | – | 94 | 67 |
| Opal LT-0 | RU | 49.6 | 1.8 | 33.1 | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 13 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 98 | 87 |
| Opal LT-1 | RU | 51.7 | 1.7 | 31.5 | 1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 12.6 | – | 0.8 | 97 | 84 |
| Opal BWS | UK | 48.6 | 0.9 | 33.9 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.5 | – | 13.5 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 97 | 84 |
| Opal DM | UK | 53.6 | 1.1 | 31.5 | 1 | 0.3 | 2.2 | – | 10 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 98 | 83 |
| Opal SQ | UK | 54.6 | 1.3 | 29.9 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2 | – | 10.4 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 96 | 78 |
| Opal HV | UK | 65.2 | 1.4 | 23.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.4 | – | 6.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 88 | 61 |
| Opal TA | UK | 60.5 | 1.5 | 26 | 1 | 0.4 | 2.5 | – | 8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 95 | 78 |
| Opal Engobe | UK | 64.8 | 1.6 | 23 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 0.1 | 6.8 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 89 | 68 |
| Opal KM | UK/IN | 56.5 | 1.0 | 30.5 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 10.0 | – | – | – | – |
| Electromix TA | UK | 60.7 | 1.5 | 25.4 | 25.4 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 0.1 | 8.0 | 0.6 | – | – | – |
| V161 | DE | 62.9 | 1.4 | 24.1 | 1 | 0.3 | 2.8 | – | 6.8 | <0.2 | 1 | 95 | 69 |
| FT1512 | DE | 67.8 | 1.4 | 21.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 2.3 | – | 5.9 | <0.1 | 1.5 | 78 | 58 |
| Opal CA3 | TH | 55.48 | 0.58 | 27.87 | 1.35 | – | – | – | 11.6 | 3.31 | – | 92.54 | 66.99 |
| Opal E11 | TH | 54.72 | 0.59 | 29.19 | 1.23 | – | – | – | 11.42 | 1.74 | – | 91.54 | 64.04 |
| Opal KA | ID | 55.0 – 61.0 | < 1.5 | 27.0 – 33.0 | < 1.5 | – | – | – | 11.0 – 13.0 | – | 3.0 | – | – |
| Opal KC | ID | 58.0 – 64.0 | < 1.5 | 24.0 – 31.0 | < 1.5 | – | – | – | 9.5 – 11.0 | – | 3.0 | – | – |
| Opal KD | ID | 63.0 – 66.0 | < 1.5 | 20.0-24.0 | < 1.5 | – | – | – | 8.0 – 9.5 | – | 3.0 | – | – |
