Types of Ceramic Products
Types of ceramic products
Ceramic products are mainly divided into four areas:
Structural: including bricks, pipes, floor and roof tiles
Refractories: such as kiln linings, gas fire radiants, steel and glass making crucibles
Whitewares: including tableware, wall tiles, pottery products, and sanitary ware
Technical: is also known as Engineering, Advanced, Special, and in Japan, Fine Ceramics. Such items include tiles used in the Space Shuttle program, gas burner nozzles, ballistic protection, nuclear fuel uranium oxide pellets, bio-medical implants, jet engine turbine blades, and missile nose cones. Frequently the raw materials do not include clays.
Examples of whiteware ceramics
Earthenware, which is often made from clay, quartz and feldspar.
Stoneware
Porcelain, which are often made from kaolin
Bone china
Classification of technical ceramics
Technical ceramics can also be classified into three distinct material categories:
Oxides: Alumina, zirconia
Non-oxides: Carbides, borides, nitrides, silicides
Composites: Particulate reinforced, combinations of oxides and non-oxides.
Each one of these classes can develop unique material properties because ceramics tend to be crystalline.