Aluminous porcelains are used as materials for high voltage electrical insulation. This type of porcelain is characterized by their excellent physical, mechanical and electrical properties. Aluminous porcelains are manufactured using compound body formulation containing kaolin, plastic clay, feldspar and alumina. A wide range of compositions is found in the literature for these porcelains. On the other hand, the ornamental rock sector generates huge amounts of solid wastes rich in flux materials, which can be used as an alternative raw material in the manufacture of porcelains. The present work studied aluminous electrical porcelain with up to 35 wt.% of ornamental rock waste in replacement of sodium feldspar, which is a natural raw material. The ceramic pastes were prepared by the dry process. Pieces of disc-shaped aluminous porcelain were prepared by uniaxial pressing with 50 MPa. The samples were sintered in a tubular furnace at 1350 °C for 1h. The following technological properties were evaluated: linear shrinkage, water absorption, bulk density, apparent porosity, compressive strength and electrical resistivity. The sintered microstructure was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Experimental results show that ornamental rock waste can replace up to 10 % of sodium feldspar in the formulation of aluminous porcelain. The sintered microstructure was strongly influenced by the addition of ornamental rock waste.
Ornamental rock waste; aluminous porcelains; properties; microstructure
