Non traditional raw material in ceramic industry

The wastes incorporation to the production cycle is an interesting alternat ive in modem industry. This gives rise to not only an economical profit but to a considerable decrease in environmental impact. Studies made about rec ycling of several wastes: glass, electric insulators and fly ash are compar ed in this work. The materials were crushed and separated by particle size distribution in order to prepare representative samples. Different treatmen t steps were carried out as is usual in the process of ceramic industries. Some of the obtained powders were used without additives while other were m ixed in different ratios with other ceramic components in order to improve their final properties. All the compacts, obtained by uniaxial pressing of the powders, received thermal treatments which were adequate to their compo sitions. They were then characterised by several techniques including dilat ometry, X ray diffraction, porosity, microhardness, optical and scanning el ectron microscopy and energy dispersion analysis (SEM/EDX). From this inves tigation it was concluded that the studied materials constitute a potential source of raw materials for the ceramic industry.