Forming of thin porcelain tiles: A comparison between tape casting and dry pressing

Thin porcelain tiles (down to 3 mm thickness) are currently made by dry pressing, while thin advanced ceramics (down to 0.1 mm thickness) use tape casting as forming step. This study proposes an alternative way of manufacturing thin porcelain tiles by tape casting. A systematic comparison between dry pressing and tape casting was made for a 2 mm thick tile fabrication. A current industrial formulation with the same particle size distribution and green density was employed, and the sintering temperature was varied in the range of 1180–1220 °C with heating rate of 40 °C/min. Firing shrinkage, loss on ignition, mechanical strength, and water absorption were measured and the microstructure after sintering was analyzed. The results showed that tape cast tiles are more homogenous and therefore presented higher values of mechanical properties.