In the German Method, beneficiation is more mechanized and makes use of powered mechanical equipments.
Normally, the processing location is away from the mines site and the mined clay is transported to the processing plant using trucks.
In the processing plant, the crude clay is charged into horizontal blungers with perforated sides. In this blunger, clay is […]

After settling, the liquid clay suspension contains about 25 to 35% solid matter and this clay suspension at this stage is now allowed to flow through drying platforms situated close to the delivery shipment point.
In the drying platforms, the clay mud is placed on open hearts called ‘dry pans’ where it gets dried. Hot air […]

Then the clay slurry enters into long shallow vats which are divided into 5 or 6 sections, each section being a step lower than the former. The stream of clay suspension runs through these channels very slowly and the speed can be regulated based on the requirement of fineness of clay. The clay suspension slurry […]

The clay suspension is collected into a main channel and is taken into a shallow tank which is otherwise called sand pit, where all the heavy materials like rock, chips, sand etc are deposited.
The clay water slurry is then pumped to the ground surface and mixed with another stream of fresh water to dilute the […]

There are two different methods commonly followed for washing of kaolin:

English method
German method

English method:
In south western part of England, rich china clay deposits are available at depths of 10 to 20 feet, surface material called over burden.
In this method, first the decomposed rock containing kaolin is loosened by hand rake, flown up by dynamite and […]

Pure kaolin: These kaolins are known for their milky white colour and they do not contain more than 2% of fluxes and 5% of free silicious materials. These clays are mainly used in the manufacturing of ceramic porcelains and ceramic fine earthenware. These are also used in several non-ceramic industries like pharmaceutical, paper, health care […]

China clay (also known as ‘kaolin’ – dervied from Chinese ‘kauling’ meaning ‘ that which is available in the hills near Jauchau Fu’). China Clay contains a very high percentage of the mineral kaolinite together with hydrous alumino-silicates. Basically these are white in colour and so after firing gives out white colour.
Since it is a […]

As we discussed in the beginning, there are so many varieties of clay available across the world in the earth’s crust. We can group them into main types according to their properties and usage in making ceramic products.
PRIMARY CLAY: China Clay - this clay is also known as KAOLIN because of its mineral origin from […]

We have discussed the Water-Clay relationship and the plastic and drying behaviour of clay. Now we will discuss the behaviour of clay when subject to firing.
When subject to high temperature, clay undergoes various changes in its properites. These varying properties of clay on firing is a very important aspect of clay in the process of […]

In the previous article we saw how Clay can be shaped into a ceramic article of desired shape from liquid slip or plastic slip. Now we will study the drying behaviour of clay to fully understand the process.
When the ceramic article (made from clay) is dried, it retains the shape, gains mechanical strength and increased […]