Plasticity, tensile strength, texture, shrinkage,
porosity, fusibility and colour
after burning are the physical properties which are the most important in
determining the value of clay.
Knowledge of these properties is of more benefit in
judging the quality of the raw material than a chemical analysis
By plasticity is meant the property which wetted clay
has of being permanently deformed without cracking.
The amount of water required by different clays to
produce the most plastic condition varies from 15 to 35 per cent.
Although plasticity is the most important physical
property of clay, yet there are no methods of measuring it which are entirely
satisfactory.
The simplest and the most used test is afforded by
feeling of the wetted clay with the fingers. Personal equation necessarily
plays a large part in such determination.
Since clay ware is subjected to considerable stress in
moulding, handling and drying, a high tensile strength is desirable.
The test is made by determining the strength of
specimens which have been moulded into briquette form and very carefully dried.
The texture of clay is measured by the fineness of its
grains. In rough work the per cent passing a No. 100 sieve is determined.
No numerical limit to the grain size or desired
relation between sizes has been established.
Very fine-grained clays free from sand are more plastic
and shrink more than those containing coarser material.
Knowledge of shrinkage both in drying and in burning is
required to produce a product of required size.
Also, the amount of shrinkage forms an index of the
degree of burning.
The shrinkage in drying is dependent upon pore space
within the clay and upon the amount of mixing water.
The addition of sand or ground burnt clay lowers
shrinkage, increases the porosity and facilitates drying.
Fire shrinkage is dependent upon the proportion of
volatile elements, upon texture and the way that clay burns.
By porosity of clay is meant the ratio if the volume of
pore space to the dry volume.
Since porosity affects the proportion of water required
to make clay plastic, it will indirectly influence air shrinkage.
Large pores allow the water to evaporate more easily
and consequently permit a higher rate of drying than do small pores.
In as much as the rate at which the clay may be safely
dried is of great importance in manufacturing clay products, the effect of
porosity on the rate of drying should be considered.
The temperature at which clay fuses is determined by
the proportion of fluxes, texture, homogeneity of the material, character of
the flame and its mineral constitution.
Owing to nonuniformity in composition, parts of the
clay body melt at different rates so that the softening period extends over a
considerable range both of time and temperature.
This period is divided into incipient vitrification and
viscous vitrification.
Experiments roughly indicate that the higher the
proportion of fluxes the lower the melting point.
Fine textured clays fuse more easily than those of
coarser texture and the same mineral composition.
The uniformity of the clay mass determines very largely
the influence of various elements; the carbonate of lime in large lumps may
cause popping when present in small percentages, but when finely ground 15 per
cent of it may be allowed in making brick or tile.
Lime combined with silicate of alumina (feldspar) forms
a desirable flux. Iron in the ferrous form, found in carbonates and in
magnetite, fuses more easily than when present as ferric iron.
If the kiln atmosphere is insufficiently oxidizing in
character during the early stages of burning, the removal of carbon and sulphur
will be prevented until the mass has shrunk to such an extent as to prevent
their expulsion and the oxidation of iron.
When this happens, a product with a discoloured core or
swollen body is likely to result.
A determination of the fusibility of a clay is of much
importance both in judging of the cost of burning it and in estimating its
refractoriness.
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