Development of a Polymeric Composite Jar for the Processing of Ceramic Raw Materials.

Abstract

This study has looked into the likelihood of substituting porcelain, the chief material used in constructing mill jar with PVC plastic. Experimental design was adopted for this research. The production of the jar was given much attention based on the size proposed by the study. Materials used for the production of the jar were PVC resin, Stearic acid impregnated with calcium carbonate as a filler locally sourced including the equipment used for the melting of the PVC material. The cast pieces were machined to various sizes required for the production of the jar. The cast and machined PVC parts were brought and glued together in stages with the use of ABRO PVC adhesive. The jar underwent series of test grindings running for more than six hours continually in operation. The cast PVC jar was used to mill 2mm grains of feldspartic materials and 2mm grains of quartz materials including 3kg batch of glaze separately at different occasions to achieve fine particle sizes that passed through an 80 mesh seize. The milled glaze was further applied on two bisque wares (a cup and a mug)  and were fired to a temperature of about 1250⁰C. Impact and Tensile test were carried out on the materials in order to ascertain their strength. 9 joule and 11 joule, 5.6KN and 6.8KN respectively was found to be the differences that exist between the strength of cast and industrially made PVC materials. It was noted that jars made of PVC materials are capable of processing ceramic minerals just like jars made of porcelain.

Keywords:  Porcelain-jar, PVC Composite-jar,  Ceramic, Processing, Raw-Materials.