3. Manufacturing processes for industrial silicate ceramics

For the industrial manufacture of silicate ceramics, we mainly use mixtures of mineral materials, including rocks from the clay group, feldspars, silica and carbonates. These mineral materials are extracted from quarries. They then undergo preliminary treatment and grinding to obtain fine powders with particle sizes ranging from 10 μm to 500 μm. In general, the industrial manufacturing process begins with a stage of dosing the proportions of mineral material powders, and a mixing stage with the addition of water in a quantity adapted to the product shaping processes. The result is a paste whose nature is adapted to the product shaping processes. The three main types of ceramic bodies are shown in table 2 .