Assessment of preliminary suitability of Fe-and Cr-rich waste material for the production of building ceramics

This paper presents laboratory research on assessment of preliminary suitability of stainless steel waste material in building ceramics production. Application of the waste material in building ceramics production is innovative and might be environmentally friendly way to utilize it and to improve/modify the properties of the ceramic products. The waste was used as an additive to kaolinite-illite and montmorilloniteillite clay type. Selected properties of ceramics materials such as water adsorption, firing shrinkage, open porosity, apparent density, frost resistance, compressive strength and leaching of chromium and iron were determined. Improvement of the mechanical properties of the fired material and its colour intensification were observed. The studies confirmed the possibility of the utilization of this kind of waste material in production of building ceramics