Portugal Cerâmica - About Ceramics

About Ceramics / Material

Definitions and History

Segments of the Industry and Importance

As it is made, Structure and Properties

The ceramic sector is ample and heterogeneous what it induces the divide it in sub sectors or segments in function of diverse factors, as raw materials, properties and areas of use. Of this form, in general, the following sorting is adoptee:

RED CERAMICS
It contais those materials with coloration, colored used in the civil construction (ceramic bricks, tablets, roofing tile and tubes / manilha) and also expanded (light aggregate), domestic utensils and adornment.

CERAMIC OR COVERING MATERIALS
It contains those materials used in the construction for covering walls, floor and benches such as tiles, boards or paving-tiles for floor and chips.

WHITE CERAMIC
This group is very diversified, containing material constituted of a white body and in general re-covered by a transparent glass layer and that were thus grouped by the white colour of mass, necessary by aesthetic and/or technical reasons.With the advent of the cloudy glass ones, many of the products contained in this group started being made, without damage of the features for one of the applications, with raw materials with a certain degree of impurities, responsible for the coloration. Many times it’s preferable to subdivide this group as a result of the use of the products in:

• Sanitary ware

• Tableware

• Electric insulators for strings of transmission and domestic distribution

• Utensils and adornment

• Technical ceramic for diverse ends, such as: chemistry, electric, thermal and mechanical

REFRACTORY MATERIALS
This group understands a great variety of products, that have as purpose to support temperatures raised in the specific conditions of process and operation of the industrial equipment, that in general involving mechanical efforts, chemical attacks, brusque variations of temperature and other requests.

ABRASIVE
Part of the abrasive industry, because they use raw materials and processes similar to the ones of ceramics, consist in a ceramic segment. Among the best-known products we can cite the oxide of electric melted aluminium.

GLASS, CEMENT and WHITEWASH
They are three important ceramic segments and, for their peculiarities, are many times considered aside from ceramics.

HIGH TECHNOLOGY CERAMIC / ADVANCED CERAMIC
The deepening of the scientific knowledge of the materials has provided to the man the development of new technologies and improvement of the existing ones in the most different areas, as aerospace, electronics, nuclear and many others and materials with high quality appeared. Such materials started being developed from synthetic raw materials of the highest pureness and by means of processes rigorously controlled. The called ceramic group of high technology or advanced ceramics manufactures such products, which can present the most different formats. They are classified according to their functions in: optic, chemical, thermal, mechanical, biological, nuclear, electronics and magnetic. The products of this segment are of intense use and they tend to extend every day. As some examples, we can mention: spaceships, satellites nuclear, centrals, implantations in human beings, devices of sound and video, support of catalysers for automobiles, sensors (moistness, gases and others), tools of cut, toys, lighters of stove, etc.