Whiteware and Glazes

Ceramics are the most ancient material used by humankind, in the form of earthenware. Whiteware encompasses many subcategories, such as sanitary ware, porcelain ware, earthenware, and stoneware. Clays used in the whiteware body are classified into two types: plastic clay and non-plastic clay. The clay–quartz–feldspar phase diagram represents the composition of all types of whiteware bodies, such as porcelain stoneware, white stoneware, soft porcelain, hard porcelain, laboratory porcelain, stoneware, earthenware, and dental porcelain. Transparent glazes are prepared without the addition of any opacifier. A translucent glaze is applied purposefully for decoration as a glossy surface. The glaze on a ceramic body is a thin coating of glaze or glass-ceramics. The presence of glaze defects after firing may render the final products rejected or discarded as scrap. Peeling or shivering is a glaze defect in which the glaze breaks away from the body/ceramic ware mainly due to a mismatch in the thermal expansion coefficient between the glaze and the body.