TILES

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Introduction:
Tiles are one of the most versatile building materials. They are just not used for walls and flooring we can use them for decoration protection or less common applications. Since they are light and easy to install, anyone can work with tiles for a wide range of improvements. A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively, tile can sometimes refer to similar units made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood, and mineral wool, typically used for wall and ceiling applications. Less precisely, the modern term can refer to any sort of construction tile or similar object, such as rectangular counters used in playing games

Types of Tiles
Ceramic Tiles
The word ceramic comes from the greek word keramos meaning pottery, it is related to an old sanskrit root meaning to burn but was primarily used to mean burnt stuff. Ceramic tiles are hard and brittle in nature. They are also known to be heat and corrosion resistant in the long run. These tiles come in various finishes like the anti skid and mat finish, which are used on steps and in bathrooms. Floor tiles come in squares and wall tiles are mostly rectangular.

Vitrified Tiles

It is created by the vitrification process. It is processed in ways that it has very low porosity (and water absorption) making it stain-resistant and strong. Vitrified tile is an alternative to marble and granite flooring. They have far superior properties compared to marble or natural granite because being a manufactured product their quality is controlled whereas in naturally occurring marble and granite good quality is just a coincidence. Vitrified tiles possess much better mechanical .

strength, scratch resistance, resistance to acids, alkalis and chemicals, resistance to staining etc compared to marble or natural granite. Vitrified tiles may be laid in a matter of hours and put to use after 48 hours. The tile is known for glazed look and a classic shine and is mostly being used in offices and commercial buildings

Glass Mosaic Tiles

This type of flooring involves embedding small pieces of colored glass, stone, or ceramic tile called tessera in a background material such as plaster or mortar. The resulting finish is unique and a variety of designs can be created. Most conventional apartments use grey or white mosaic. These are relatively inexpensive. More affluent variety of mosaic is also available in the market for the deserving people. These tiles have multicoloured block in them with a glass finish that makes them shine and are mostly used in kitchens, swimming pools, wash rooms and pooja rooms.

PVC tiles
Polyvinyl chloride (P.V.C.) tiles are a commonly used floor finish. The tiles are made of a composite of PVC and fibre, producing a thin and fairly hard tile. The surface wears, in time causing difficulty in cleaning, then loss of the colored pattern layer. Finally a very smooth floor is required to lay them on, otherwise they gradually become cut by the foot pressure above and the shallow edges below. The main advantages of PVC tiles are low cost, ease of replacing individual tiles, and the fact that the tiles can be laid with only brief periods available.

Rubber Floor Tiles:

Rubber floor tiles are most commonly used in high-traffic areas where easy cleanup is a priority. For this reason, they are considered the ideal choice for a basement, workshop, garges or even a home gym. Some rubber floor tiles have raised surfaces to prevent slipping, and these are ideal for areas where water is a factor, such as a mud room or patio. Like other rubber products, rubber floor tiles come with a distinct odor that diminishes with time, which may make them a concern for those who are sensitive to the scent.

USES: Here are some places around the home that can benefit from tile applications: 1. Counter 2. Bathroom 3. Backsplash 4. Flooring 5. Wall Accents 6. Exteriors

COUNTER :

Ceramic tile is among the most common materials for kitchen countertops. Because it's hard and water-resistant, it holds up extremely well to the moist and often humid environment of the kitchen. If you're busy, you'll also like its low-maintenance nature; a quick wipe once in a while is usually all it needs

BATHROOM:

Mostly used on floor They are commonly used in walls

BACKSPLASH

The backsplash tiles protects the walls against spills coming from the sink and counter. Almost all backsplashes are made of tile because of its natural water resistance. Some people prefer stone or marble, but these are expensive materials. We can use the same tile design as your countertop, or go for a contrasting colour for a stronger effect.

FLOORING
Tile is one of the cheapest flooring options, especially compared to popular materials such as hardwood and marble. Most tiles can withstand heavy use in living rooms and the heat and moisture of bathrooms. Best of all, it's easy to install-you don't need much prior experience to lay a floor tile on your own.

WALL ACCENTS:
Small decorative tiles make great accents for walls, counters, and flooring. They usually come in stronger, deeper colours and feature interesting patterns, often to complement the colour of bigger tiles. Use them to dress up large walls or to create designs on your tile floor.

EXTERIOR:
Some tiles can actually be used on the exterior walls of your home. These are usually decorative ones made to look like natural materials, such as wood and stone. They make great alternatives to exterior painting, since they don't fade and can withstand most outdoor elements. Since you won't be stepping on them, you can use larger, lighter tiles to make installation easier

FIXING:

Fixing of ceramic tiles:

Mix up the tile adhesive. Tile adhesive has a limited pot life, about 20 minutes, so do not mix up more than realistically be able to use in time available. Lay first tile in the corner furthest from the door. In order accurately to position the tile, dry-lay a line of tiles from the centre line, and then draw a line at right angles to the centre line along the far edge of the whole tile at right angles to your guideline. Providing this line is parallel to the centre line the last tile you dry-laid is first tile. Spread the adhesive over an area of approx. 1sq m (1sq yd) at a time. Using the recommended side of a notched spreader or trowel, apply the adhesive to the correct depth, normally approximately 3mm (in). Depending on the adhesive being used, it may be necessary to butter the back of the tile with adhesive as well.

 Press the tile into position with a slight twisting motion. It is important to bed the tile into the adhesive without any air gaps. For neat and even joints, usually 6-12mm (-in.), use plastic spaces between the tiles. Continue laying the tiles in the first marked square. If any adhesive gets on the surface of a tile clean it off immediately with a damp cloth; ensure too that the joints are adhesivefree. When the first grid box has been laid, apply adhesive to the second and continue laying tiles along the far wall. Then complete the second row of squares and continue laying the tiles in rows of boxes, working towards the door. Allow the tile adhesive to dry thoroughly before walking on the tiles. Conventional adhesives usually need at least 24 hours although fast-setting adhesives can take only a few hours.

 It will probably be necessary to cut tiles around the edges of the room to fit; if you lay the tiles on the diagonal, you will need to cut at least one in every two tiles. Ceramic tiles can be cut using a tile-cutting jig. Butter the back of the cut tile and press into position. Continue until all the border tiles have been laid, leaving the four corners until last in order to cut them accuratelyTo determine where to cut a border tile: Place a whole tile over the last laid whole tile. To allow for a grout, place a tile on its side between this tile and the wall and place another tile up against it. Mark the middle tile with a soft pencil where the tile above it ends. Place the tile in the jig and cut along the marked line.

 Grouting Ceramic Tile When all the tiles have been laid and the adhesive is dry, fill the tile joints with a tile grout suitable for floors. Conventional grout is a powder mixed with water according to the manufacturers instructions. It is available in colors ranging from off-white to dark grey. For food-preparation areas an epoxy grout is a good idea because it is extremely hard and easily cleaned. Epoxy grout consists of two components that are mixed together, and then a powder filler is added to bulk it out. Pour the grout onto the surface and spread it into the joints with the aid of a rubber squeegee, working on small areas at a time. After 15 minutes, clean any excess grout off the surface with a damp cloth. Once the grout has hardened sufficiently, polish the tiles with a clean, dry cloth.

Fixing of vitrified tiles

Prepare base mortar with cement and sand in the ratio of 1:4. The total mortar thickness should not be more than 25mm. Set the levels for the floor i.e. dead level or slope as specified. Prepare cement slurry with cement and water to form a thick paste and spread it on the leveled base mortar. Wet the rear side of the tile with water. (Complete immersion of tile is not necessary) If tiles are square or rectangular in shape, set the right angles for the area and place the first tile along the right angle line on base mortar. Tab gently with a rubber mallet to get perfect level. After laying, immediately clean the surface of the tiles with clean, wet sponge. Ensure that the base mortar cement, which squeezes through joints, does not settle on the tile.

 Also make sure that the water used is not hard or brackish. Do not use the area laid for 48 hours. Fill in the joints with pointing material i.e. mixture of white cement and desired colour pigment. For higher quality of finishes, you could use, if required, a polymer based cementitous tiling joint filler. To get the desired colour / shade, mix the same with water to form a smooth paste, which should be applied to the joints, preferably with the use of a rubber squeezer. Do not apply the pointing material all over the surface. Allow the pointing material to set for 15 minutes. And clean the surface of the tile with clean wet sponge, in order to remove the excess pigment on the tile surface.

 MANUFACTURING

VINYL TILE FLOOR COVERING :

The polyvinyl chloride resins are mixed with calcium carbonate, plasticizers, and pigments in a large industrial mixer. The mixture is heated to melting and consolidated. The friction from the mixing blades produces a compound with the consistency of bread dough. The dough-like substance is put through calendar rollers and the material is squeezed into sheets. The sheets are embossed while still in rolls. Once decorated, the sheet is then cut into individual tiles with a die cutting machine, resembling multiple cookie cutters. The tile squares (12 x 12 in or 30.48 x 30.48 cm) are cooled and put into a box if they are dry sheets (without pressure-sensitive glue on the back). If they are to receive glue for affixing to the floor, a roll-coater carrying organic resins deposits the glue on the tile backing. A paper cover that protects the glue is put over backing. The tiles are boxed (in boxes of 10 or 12) and ready for shipment.

CERAMIC TILE:
The ceramic tile manufacturing process consists of a series of successive stages, which can be summarised as follows: Raw materials preparation Pressing and drying of the green body Firing, with or without glazing Additional treatments Sorting and packing Raw materials preparation The ceramic process starts by selecting the raw materials required for the body composition, which are mainly clays, feldspars, sands, carbonates. In the traditional ceramic industry, the raw materials are generally used as-mined or after some Minor treatment. As natural raw materials are involved, preliminary homogenization is required in most cases to ensure consistent characteristics.

Dry or wet milling After a first mixing of the body components, the mixture is usually dry milled (hammer or pendulum mills) or wet milled (continuous or batch ball mills). The resulting milled material exhibits different characteristics depending on whether dry or wet milling is used. In dry milling, fragmentation occurs and particle aggregates and agglomerates remain, with a larger particle size (there are particles larger than 300 microns) than by the wet method (all particles are smaller than 200 microns). In wet milling, the raw materials can be wholly or partially fed into the ball mills, which is normally the case, or they can be directly dispersed. Part of the water contained in the resulting suspension (slip) is removed by spray drying to obtain a product with the required moisture for each process stage. Spray drying is the most widely implemented drying method in tile manufacture. In this drying process, the fine drops of sprayed suspension come into contact with hot air to yield a solid with a low water content.

 The moisture content of the body slip usually ranges from 0.0-0.45 kg water/kg dry solid. The spray-drying process reduces the water content to 0.05-0.07 kg water/kg dry solid. Spray drying takes place in the following steps. Pumping and spraying the slip. Hot gas generation and feed. Drying by contact of hot gas-slip drops. Separation of spray dried powder from the gases. Mixing In this body preparation stage, the water and raw materials making up the body composition are closely mixed to a consistent paste that is readily mouldable by extrusion.

Dry pressing Dry pressing (at 5-7% moisture content) with hydraulic presses is the most common tile forming method. Forming takes place by mechanically compressing the paste in the die and is one of the most cost-efficient forming methods for making ceramic ware with a regular geometry. In pressing, the oil-hydraulic press system drives the rams into the powder bed in the die Extrusion Tile forming by extrusion processes basically consists of putting the plastic body through a die that produces a constant tile cross section. The equipment involved is made up of three main parts: a driving system, the die and the cutter. The most common driving system is an auger.

Drying of the green ceramic bodies After forming, the tile body is dried to reduce the moisture content (0.2-0.5 %) to appropriately low levels for the firing and eventual glazing stages. In the dryers that are commonly used in the ceramic industry, heat is transferred mainly by convection from hot gases to the tile surface, and also slightly by radiation from these gases and from the dryer walls to the tile surface. Therefore, during the drying of ceramic bodies, a simultaneous and consecutive displacement of the water takes place through the wet solid and the gas. The air used must be sufficiently dry and hot, because it not only serves to remove the water from the solid but also to provide energy in the form of heat to evaporate the water. At present, the bodies are dried in vertical or horizontal dryers. After shaping, the bodies are placed in the dryer where they face a hot gas countercurrent. The hot gases come from an airnatural gas burner or from the kiln cooling stack. The main heat transfer mechanism between the air and the bodies is convection. There are two type of dryer vertical and horizontal..

Firing, with or without glazing Unglazed products are fired after the drying stage. Similarly, in the case of glazed twice-fire products, the green bodies are fired after drying.
Glazing Glazing involves applying one or more coats of glaze with a total thickness of 75-500 microns onto the tile proper surface by different methods Glazing is done to provide the fired product with a series of technical and esthetical properties such as impermeability, cleanability, gloss, colour, surface texture, and chemical and mechanical resistance. The nature of the resulting glaze coating is essentially vitreous, although in many cases the glaze structure contains crystalline elements.

Glazes and frits The glaze, just like the ceramic body, is made up of a series of inorganic raw materials. The major glaze component is silica (glass former), as well as other elements that act as fluxes (alkalis, alkaline earths, boron, zinc, etc.), opacifiers zirconium, titanium, etc.), and as colouring agents (iron, chromium, cobalt, manganese, etc.). A wide variety of glazes are formulated depending on the type of product, firing temperature, and the desired effects and properties of the finished product. In other ceramic processes (porcelain artware, sanitary ware), glazes are formulated that only contain crystalline, natural or synthetic raw materials, which contribute the necessary oxides. However, in ceramic floor and wall tile manufacture, raw materials of a glassy nature (frits) are used. These are prepared from the same crystalline materials that have previously undergone heat treatment at high temperature.

Frits: Nature, advantages, composition and manufacture. Frits are vitreous compounds, insoluble in water, made by melting at high temperature (1500C) followed by fast cooling of the raw materials mixture. Most of the glaze compositions used in tile manufacture have a larger or smaller fritted part, which can consist of a single frit or blend of different types of frits. For a given chemical composition using frits has certain advantages compared to using unfritted raw materials, such as: Insolubility of certain chemical elements. Lower toxicity; owing to its size and structure, the frit tends to form less ambient dust than the original raw materials, thus reducing the hazard associated with raw materials toxicity. Wider glaze working temperature range, as they have no defined melting points. The purpose of the frit production process, usually known as fritting, is to obtain a vitreous material that is insoluble in water by melting and subsequent cooling of the mixture of different materials.

Glazes: Preparation and application. Decoration In the glaze preparation process, the frit and additives are usually ground in alumina ball mills until a preset reject is obtained. The conditions of the aqueous suspension are then adjusted. Ceramic tile glazing is done continuously. Firing Firing is one of the most important tile manufacturing process stages as most tile characteristics depend on it. These include mechanical strength, dimensional stability, chemical resistance, cleanability, fire resistance, etc. The main variables to be considered in the firing stage are the thermal cycle (temperature-time, and kiln atmosphere, which must be adapted to each composition and manufacturing technology, according to the ceramic product to be made. In the firing operation, the tiles are subjected to a thermal cycle during which a series of reactions take place in the piece, generating changes in the microstructure and providing the desired final properties.