Mixture of deflocculants: A systematic approach

In the production of ceramic tiles, during wet grinding, chemical additives are normally used to increase the solid loading of the suspensions. Commonly, mixtures of organic and inorganic chemical additives are used to reduce viscosity and costs. In literature, only few papers consider the combined effect of two or more deflocculants and a modest knowledge has developed on possible competitive or synergic interactions among them. The most common rheological additives show different behaviour depending on the clay. With mixture design it is possible to define mathematical models by means of which it is possible to engineer the rheological behaviour of a suspension.