Porcelain tile: Almost 30 years of steady scientific-technological evolution

Despite the great global significance of porcelain tile manufacture, the scientific activity in porcelain tile's almost 30-year existence does not match the importance of the business. Although scientific output has been scarce, technological advances have been and still are spectacular, largely driven by machinery builders, in collaboration with glaze and pigment producers.This paper begins by describing the evolution and distribution of research into porcelain tile per country. The study then reviews the major scientific and technological advances, focusing principally on the developments in raw materials compositions resulting from the introduction of certain key raw materials to enhance composition quality. As the interpretation of unfired body microstructure, and the relation of unfired tile microstructure to processability and to sintered tile microstructure and properties have drawn particular attention from the scientific community, the paper addresses these issues in depth.The last part reviews the R&D lines which, in the authors’ view, will witness further development in the short and medium term and which obviously parallel the technology advances in the product and the manufacturing process.