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Abstract

The glaze, like the ceramic body, is made up of a series of inorganic raw materials. The main component of the glaze is silica glass as well as other elements that act as fluxes (alkalis, alkaline earths), former (boron, zinc, etc), opacities (zirconium, titanium, etc), and as coloring agents (chromium, cobalt, Manganese, etc). Although several glass-forming systems exist, ceramic glazes are almost completely based on alumina-silicate glass systems. The main glass forming oxide, silica (SiO 2 ) is modified by adding a range of other oxides. The modifiers act to alter thermal, chemical, and physical properties of the product, (Table 1) (Vari, 2000;Burleson, 2003).