Hudson, Rob on thu 2 may 02
Have been reading with interest the latest discussions on rutile, where it
comes from, and glazes in general. There are perhaps some things I can add
to clarify the picture. I am the Marketing Manager - Nth America for both
CRL and Iluka resources Inc (the company that has management control of CRL)
based near one of our two US mines, in Jacksonville FL. I sell the CRL
rutile to the old TAM, now Ferro Electronic Materials. Whilst it is a nice
compliment, CRL does not own Ferro, we are merely a supplier.
There is quite some discussion about the differences and applicability of
various of the TiO2 ores to glaze formulations, and while TiO2 is widely
used, little of it goes into glazes generally. 93% of the worldwide
production of ~4m tonnes goes into the manufacture of TiO2 white pigment
(the pigment that replaced white lead oxide in paints of old) that makes
things white in paper, paint and plastics. The remaining 7% is split
between titanium metal and welding electrode manufacture. Rutile is usually
calcined to remove water of hydration, that is small molecules of water that
are caught in the lattice of the grain. It is not reported in a
specification sheet, thus calcined (the Ferro Ceramic Grade?) and non
calcined may appear to be the same thing, based on a Certificate of Assay.
I am far from being an expert in glazes but I would imagine that a calcined
rutile would cause less surface imperfections in a fired glaze. The other
TiO2 types, slag, UGS, synthetic rutile, ilmenite are all variations around
how much TiO2 is in them, but I would imagine that for glazes, it is what is
not TiO2 that is more important to the ultimate effect desired.
The CRL website has already been noted on the discussion list, the Iluka one
is per below. Happy firing!
Kind regards,
Robert Hudson
Visit our websites at www.iluka.com and www.consrutile.com.au
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