Chapter 31. Woody Ceramics: Glazed and Colored

Summary

By highly dispersing ceramic microcapsules into kaolin, we developed a new whiteware that is ultra-lightweight and has a high thermal insulation with a reasonable mechanical strength. The woody ceramic has a wood-touch feeling and has a bulk density and thermal conductivity less than 50% of the original body. We have worked on the glazing and decoration processes of the woody ceramics and found the application feasibile to use on dinnerware, tile, sanitaryware, whiteware arts, and so on. The mixed green with the microcapsule was shaped, dried, prefired to 950°C, color painted, and overcoated with the lime slurry. The painted bodies were then refired at 1250°C in a reducing atmosphere, following the standard product process of whitewares, and we obtained an excellent quality of decoration. Thus present results showed potential applications of the woody ceramics to the various types of whitewares.