Alumina grinding ball is the most ideal grinding media ball for the ceramics industry. High alumina grinding ball is high-density, ultra hard and clean, it can save the grinding time and keep your product clean.
The below quoted text is from one world class ceramic tile manufacturer named “INTERCERAMIC”, the original text url is: http://www.willis-flooring.com/interceramic/, from this text you will understand the usage and importantance of aluming grinding ball in the ceramic tiles manufacturing.
“HOW INTERCERAMIC WALL TILE IS MANUFACTURED
Interceramic begins the production process by procuring the finest raw materials available. The body is a combination of the earth’s natural resources and elements including silica, talc and calcium carbonate. Each of these ingredients is inspected for quality prior to entering the production process. The bulk clay is then broken down into a more manageable state in the crushers. Then the various clays are loaded onto large conveyors, where they are delivered to storage in which each raw material has its own silo.
Water and clay, in precise proportions, are then loaded into ball mills. These mills contain high-density alumina balls that grind the clay into a fine homogeneous mixture. The result is a product called body slip. Its viscosity is similar to that of a milkshake. The product then mills for several hours and is tested for viscosity, density and residue to see if further milling is required.
From the ball mill the body slip is stored in holding tanks that contain large paddles that keep the slip in a suspended state. These holding tanks can hold four ball mills worth of material.
From the storage tanks, the body slip is then pumped into the spray dryer. The burner in the dryer generates rapidly moving hot air that evaporates the moisture from the body slip. This creates fine particles of clay with a hole in the center. These particles are of various sizes and are controlled as they are formed in the evaporation process and travel through the burner. The granulation size is such that if a bucket were poured, it would flow like water. At this point, it is commonly called the powder. The powder is then transferred into large silos for storage. From the silos, the powder is taken to various presses by means of a conveyor system. The moisture content of the powder is approximately 5% at the time of press. There the powder is loaded into molds and compressed under approximately 690 tons of pressure to form the bisque. Bisque is what the tile is called prior to being glazed and fired. The bisque is then run through a horizontal dryer to further reduce the moisture content and to heat the tile prior to applying the glaze. The moisture content is reduced from 5% to less than 1% and exits the dryer at approximately 280 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the body is being prepared, the glaze is also in production at a designated area of the factory called glaze prep. Glaze is made primarily of frit – a man-made substance that contains silica, feldspar, nepalean, titanium and other compounds that are found naturally – and has some of the characteristics of ceramic and some characteristics of glass. All ingredients are milled with alumina balls and additives to control viscosity. From the silo, the glaze is filtered and put into transportable storage for the next step: the glaze line. Interestingly, all the glazes start with the same basic make-up, into which pigments are added to create the wide array of colors available in the Interceramic wall tile line.
It is worth noting that throughout the manufacturing process, goods are kept on hand as “goods in process.” This is critical to quality control and is necessary to run the kilns at capacity twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. From the horizontal dryer, the bisque travels down the glaze lines where various types of glazes are applied, including waterfall applications, dry glaze and silk-screens. These applications will determine the style, color, design and surface texture. After the glaze application is complete, the tile, now called green ware, is temporarily stored in cars, which hold over one thousand square feet of tile. At this point, the tile will wait its turn to go through the roller hearth kiln.
At the hearth kiln, the glazed green ware travels through the kiln on rollers. The controlled firing curve causes two chemical reactions to take place – one in the body and one in the glaze – and the glaze is fused to the body. During the firing process, the wall tile body shrinks by less than one percent. Inside the kiln, temperatures reach 1100 degrees C, or close to 2000 degrees F. The kilns are designed to withstand these intense temperatures while operating at all times.
When the tile exits the kiln, it is loaded onto cars, transferred to storage racks and transported to a selection area. There the tile is unloaded onto the selection line where it is sorted visually by tones and class (firsts and seconds). Via electronic photo cells, the tiles are measured for squareness, caliber, wedging and warpage, and identified with an electronic marker. Tiles not meeting Interceramic’s standards are discarded for recycling; the rest are scanned by machinery designed to read the electronic marker and then sort and pack according to quality. Finally, the tile is packaged, labeled and bar coded by classification. From start to finish the product is never touched with the exception of the ultraviolet marker in the selection process. ”
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