Influence of Mould Pressure and Substitution of Quartz by Palm Oil Fuel Ash on the Hardness of Porcelain Body

This paper presents use of treated palm oil fuel ash (POFA) as a substitute material for quartz in fabricating an improved porcelain tile. Untreated POFA was dried in an oven at 100ºC for 24 h. The untreated POFA was then grounded in a ball mill to reduce the particle size to improve reactivity. It was then sieved using a set of sieves (50 μm) to remove the particles coarser than 50 μm. The untreated POFA was heated at a temperature of 600 ºC for 1.5 h. The mixed powder was pressed into pellets at pressure of 31MPa, 61 MPa, 91 MPa and 121 MPa. All the pellets were sintered at a temperature of 1100 ºC for 2 h soaking time. It was found that the bulk density and Vickers hardness of porcelain increases with increase in substitution of quartz by POFA. The highest bulk density and Vickers hardness of the porcelain was achieved on 15 wt% substitution of quartz by POFA at a Mould pressure of 91 MPa.Keywords: Bulk Density, POFA, Porcelain, Porosity, Volume Shrinkage, Quart