Application of laser scanning microscopy in the development of highly abrasion-resistant glazes for fast-fired hard paste porcelain

To strengthen the competitiveness of porcelain manufacturers in national an d international markets with their ever increasing quality requirements, th e research presented was aimed at developing highly abrasion-resistant glaz es for fast-fired hard paste porcelain. By increasing the degree of cross-l inking in the glass structure, it was possible to improve the mechanical ab rasion resistance of porcelain glazes. Uniform and defect-free glaze applic ation is particularly important for achieving this improvement. To determin e the abrasion resistance of the glazes, a new testing method was developed in which the glaze surface is analysed topographically with a laser scanni ng microscope before and after defined sandblasting and the roughness param eters compared. The glaze development work could be minimized with the help of fractional factorial statistical test planning according to the Taguchi method.