The Brazilian ceramic brick industry has an important economic and social role, with a billionaire market and generating millions of jobs. However, this industry presents an outdated technology, which causes the production of low quality bodies and high production losses. Objecting improve the quality of ceramic brick this work evaluated the influence of additives on the plasticity of formulations used for the production of ceramic bricks and on the physical properties of samples produced with additive formulations. Five formulations and ten additives were studied. The influence of additives on the Atterberg limits was analyzed. Additives that reduced the plasticity limit were selected, formulations were produced and test specimens were obtained by extrusion. The flexural strength of the dried and fired bars was measured. The water absorption of the fired bars was also determined. The results indicated that some additives could be used to reduce the formulations plasticity limit and improve the flexural strength.
ceramic bricks; plasticity; additives; extrusion
