The study of rheological behavior of clay slips at Corumbataí Formation arose from the need for the ceramic industries of Santa Gertrudes pole (SP) to adapt to the changes of the market behavior and to the demands of the environmental organs regarding the risks caused by the generation of dust in the mass preparation process. The wet grinding process can be an alternative for this substitution, and it]s important to have proper rheological features of the slips for the process and energy consumption. Viscosity measurements, shear stress and shear rate have been made with rotational viscometer, by having the solid content of the slip and particle size as control parameters. Therefore variations of the suspensions have been verified, like the pseudoplastic behavior and the tixotropy. The dependence of the rheological behavior on the clay mineralogy has also been analyzed and it was obtained by X-ray diffraction. The results of the rheological curves appeared to be very coherent with the determined mineralogy, indicating a worsening of the rheological behavior from the bottom to the top of the Corumbataí Formation due to the supergenic alteration and the presence of smectites.
ceramic raw material; Corumbataí Formation; rheology; ceramic tile; wet grinding process
