cement

Introduction
The modern day cement. That is Portland cement was first produced by a
British stone mason, Joseph Aspdin in 1824, who cooked cement in his
kitchen. He heated a mixture of limestone and clay powder in his
kitchen, and grind the mixture into powder creating cement, that
hardens when mixed with water. The name Portland was given by the
inventor as it resembles a stone quarried on the Isle of Portland. The first
use of modern day Portland cement was in the tunnel construction in the
Thames River.
● Romans produced cements from
POZZOLANA, which is an ash found in
volcanoes of Italy by mixing ash with lime.

● Manufacturing of cement on a huge scale

started in England around 1825.
 Indian Cement Industry
● India started cements production in 1904.

● 1st cement factory in India was setup in Tamil

Nadu.

● India is currently the 2nd largest cement

producer in the world.
 Types of Cements

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)

Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC)

Rapid Hardening Cement

Quick setting cement

General Composition of Cements
Manufacture Process of Cement

1. Mixing of raw material

2. Burning

3. Grinding

4. Storage and packaging

 1. Mixing of raw material

The major raw materials of cement are Calcium, Silicon, Iron and Aluminum.
.
Table shows the raw materials for Portland cement manufacture

,
Dry Process
 It is a new method of manufacturing method in
which fuel and power consumption has been
reduced to larger extent.

 Preheating is done by Exhaust gas which help in

reducing the manufacturing cost.

 Dry process is used majorly for manufacturing of

cement.
The both calcareous and argillaceous raw materials are
firstly crushed in the crushers to get 25 mm size pieces
separately.

The crushed materials are again grinded to get fine particles into
ball or tube mill.

Each finely grinded material is stored in storage basin after

screening.

Now these powdered minerals are mixed in required proportion to

get dry raw mix which is then stored in silos and kept ready to be
sent into rotary kiln.
Wet Process
•It is the old process of manufacturing which is no
longer in use.

•It requires high degree of fuel consumption and

power consumption which leads to increase the
manufacturing cost.

•No preheater is required in this case.

The raw materials are firstly crushed and made into powdered form and stored in silos.

The clay is then washed in washing mills to remove adhering organic matters.

The powdered limestone and water washed clay are sent to grinding mills
where they are completely mixed and the paste is formed, i.e., known as slurry.

The grinding process can be done in ball or tube mill or even both.

Then the slurry is fed into collecting basin where composition can be adjusted.

The slurry contains around 38-40% water that is stored in storage tanks and kept
ready for the rotary kiln.
(ii) Burning. Corrected slurry is fed at the higher end of the inclined rotary kiln
whereas from the lower end of the kiln flame is produced by injecting pulverized coal
with a blast of air.

Rotary kiln is a steel tube lined inside with fire bricks. It is 90 to 120 metres long and
from 2.5 to 3.5 meters in diameter. The kiln is mounted on rollers at a gradient of 1 in
25 to 1 in 30 and rotating once in every minute.

Slurry on entering the furnace losses moisture and forms into small lumps or
“nodules”.
The nodules gradually roll down passing through zones of rising temperature until they
reach burning zone where they are finally burnt at 1500 to 1650ºC.
At this temperature “nodules” change to clinkers.

Clinkers are air-cooled in another inclined tube similar to the kiln but of lesser
length.
 Grinding. Grinding of the clinker is done in large
(iii)
tube mills which are kept cool by spraying water on
them from outside.

While grinding the clinker three to four per cent

gypsum (Calcium sulphate) is added so as to
control the setting time of cement.

4. Storage and packaging

The ground cement is stored in silos, from which it is
marketed either in container load or 50kg bags.
 How to store Cements??

● Store it carefully.
● Else it absorbs moisture in it.
● When moisture absorbed in it, no
structure can be formed from it as it
becomes useless.
Precautions to be kept in mind while it’s
storage??
● Avoid moisture

● 1 to 2 % moisture has negligible effect on it’s quality.

● When >5% moisture, it becomes useless.

● Loose cement can be stored in airtight containers/bags
for some fixed durations.

● But storing not more than 3 months in jute bags is good .

● Minimum 300mm distance b/w piles of cement and the

wall of the building.

● Storehouse should have it’s walls, roof, and flooring

all waterproof.
Ceramic Materials
 Introduction

The word “ceramic” comes from Greek word “keramos” means

pottery.

Ceramics usually consists of metallic and non metallic elements

bounded by ionic and covalent bonds

Most Ceramics have a crystalline structure and glasses have an

amorphous (non-crystalline) structure.
•The ceramics are generally hard, brittle, poor
conductivity,

•High melting point, resistant to creep(the

tendency of a material to slowly deform over a
long period of exposure to high levels of stress)

•low toughness, low ductility etc.

They are good electrical and thermal insulators due to
absence of free electrons.

Ceramics includes clay articles, silicate, metallic oxides and

their combinations e.g.pottery objects.

New ceramic materials were developed for use in

advanced ceramic engineering, such as in
semiconductors.
 CLASSIFICATIONS OF CERAMICS
• Ceramic materials can be classified into following
basic groups, according to their fields of use.
• 1) Structural Ceramics : The ceramic materials that
are used for constructing buildings and other various
structures are called structural ceramics. e.g. Bricks,
floors, pipes, roof tiles etc.
• 2) Facing ceramic materials: Such ceramic materials
are used for internal and external facing of building
and structures. e.g. Facing bricks, tiles, slabs etc.
• 3) Refractory's ceramics: These are ceramic materials
whose mechanical properties at high temperatures
do not changes.
• These materials used for lab furnaces, ovens and
apparatus for operating at high temperature.

• 4) Fine ceramics: They are used domestically in

electrical appliances and in laboratories. e.g. Dishes,
wash basins, porcelain wares, chemical wares glassed
pottery sanitary wares etc.
 CLASSIFICATIONS OF CERAMICS
Ceramics are also classified on the basis of
characteristic properties and applications
• Traditional ceramics
• Advanced / Modern ceramics
• Traditional ceramics are composed of three naturally
occurring basic components clay, silica and feldspar.
• Clay provides strength after converting into ceramic
products such as bricks, tiles, porcelain, sanitary
wares etc.
 Traditional ceramics
• At a temperature about 1000 oC, alumina and silica mixture forms
mullite ( 3Al2O32SiO2) which is stable compound.
• Second compound silica used in ceramic industries in the form of sand, sand stone, quartz.
• Third compound feldspar is basically potash ( K2OAl2O36SiO2) and soda ( Na2OAl2O36SiO2)
which is common minerals.
• In traditional ceramics, the mined raw materials are converted into small particles either by
milling or grinding.
• Then powder of desired size of ceramics is obtained by sizing or screening.
• The powders are then well mixed usually with water and additives to impart flow
characterizations before melting.
 The 8 Steps of Ceramics Processing
Step #1: Milling & Raw Material Procurement
The raw materials used in the process are milled materials typically
found in mining sites that have been reduced from a large size to
smaller sizes.

To liberate any impurities in the materials allowing for better

mixing and forming which produces a more reactive material
when firing.
Step #2: Sizing

The materials that have undergone the milling and

procurement process must be sized to separate desirable
material from non-usable.

Step #3: Batching

This part of the process can also be known as” blending”

which calculates amounts, weighing and initial blended of
the raw materials.
Step #4: Mixing

To obtain a more chemically and physically homogeneous material prior to

forming

It is also important to add binders or plasticizers as well.

For wet slurry mixtures, a filter press would remove the water from the
slurry and yield the clay body from the mix.
Step #5: Forming

The materials such as dry powders, pastes or slurries are consolidated and

molded to produce a cohesive body of whatever end product is desired

Step #6: Drying

The formed materials hold water and binder in its mix that
can cause shrinkage, or distortion of the product.
Generally convection drying is the most commonly used
method in which heated air is circulated around the
ceramic piece that alleviates the risk of such imperfections
in the final product.
Step #7: Glazing

The glaze consists of oxides that give the product the

desired finish look.

The raw materials are ground in a ball mill .

The glaze can be applied using the spraying or dipping

methods.
Step #8: Firing
Also known as sintering or densification, the ceramics pass through a
controlled heat process where the oxides are consolidated into a
dense, cohesive body made up of uniform grain.

1. Short Firing gives you final product that is porous and low density.

2. Intermediate Firing results in fine-grained, high-strength products.

3. Long Firing produces a coarse-grained product that is creep

resistant which means the material will not distort when under a
load for an extended period of time.
 Traditional ceramics
• Traditional Ceramics the older and more generally known types
(porcelain, brick, earthenware, etc.)
• Based primarily on natural raw materials of clay and silicates
• Applications
• building materials (brick, clay pipe, glass)
• household goods (pottery, cooking ware)
• manufacturing ( abbrasives, electrical devices, fibers etc.
 Modern Ceramics
• Modern ceramics widely used for industrial applications

• Here ceramic material is made by objects from inorganic, non-

metallic materials by the action of heat.
• The modern ceramics are pure compounds such as magnesium
oxide, aluminium oxide, barium titanate, silicon carbide and silicon
nitrate.
 Thermal properties
•Thermal expansion
The coefficients of thermal expansion depend
on the bond strength between the atoms that
make up the materials.
•Strong bonding (diamond, silicon carbide, silicon
nitrite) → low thermal expansion coefficient
•Weak bonding ( stainless steel) → higher
thermal expansion coefficient
 Thermal properties
•Thermal conductivity
generally less than that of metals in contrast,
theyare used for thermal insulation due to their
low thermal conductivity
Properties of Ceramics
•Ceramics are Very brittle ,Low ductility and High
elastic modulus
• Ceramics are Low electrical conductivity, Low
thermal conductivity and Low thermal
expansion.
• They have High strength at elevated
temperatures
• Most of ceramic materials are dielectric
 APPLICATIONS OF CERAMICS

• Dielectric ceramics are used for manufacturing capacitors, insulators and

resistors, semiconductors, Lasers magnets etc.

• The blade of a ceramic knife will stay sharp for much longer than that of a
steel knife, although it is more brittle.

• Advanced ceramics are largely used in aircraft, thermal protection system in

rockets, insulating tiles for space shuttle etc.

• Advanced ceramics has low expansion which finds applications in

automotive field for catalytic converters, oxygen sensors,
•Ceramics are commonly used in biomedical
applications for bone repairing, tooth
replacement, hearing devices etc.
• Ceramic brake disks for vehicles are resistant
to abrasion at high temperatures.
• Ceramic material is used to protect the
cockpits of some military airplanes, because of
the low weight of the material.
Classification of ceramics on the basis of
applications
Applications of Glass

❖ Window glass

❖ Containers –cups, jars, bottles

❖ Light bulbs
2. Clay

Clays consist of fine particles of hydrous aluminum silicate.

Clay can be shaped while wet and soft, and then fired to obtain the final hard product.

★ Clay products
A) Structural
B) Whitewares Clay soil

Kaolinite
A) Structural clay products
3. Refractories

Ceramics capable of high temperature applications such as furnace walls, crucibles, and
molds.
4. Abrasives

● Used to wear, grind, or cut away other materials.

● High degree of toughness.
● Diamonds are used as abrasives.
● Cutting tool materials - tungsten carbide, aluminum oxide, and cubic boron nitride
 Main applications of ceramics in the aerospace industry

Where What? Examples

?

➢ Aircrafts Engines and exhaust systems

Brakes
 Main applications of ceramics and glass in the aerospace industry

What? Where Examples

?

➢ Space Vehicles Insulating tiles

➢ Ultra high speed Nose cones and high-temperature coatings

Flying objects
Main applications of ceramics in electronic industry

Spark Plug Protective parts for Capacitors Resistors

power lines

Piezoelectric devices Magnets High and low temp co

Inductors
fired ceramics
● Brittle
○ Poor impact strength
○ Lower shock resistance
● Low tensile strength
● Low ductility
 Why brittleness

● Metals have metallic bonding

which can shift over each other
● Where as ceramic have ionic bond
which breaks on laye shifting
Disadvantages of Ceramics

•They have a brittle nature.

•They have a low degree of ductility.

•Their tensile strength is low.

•Even for identical specimens, there is a wide range of

variation in strength.

•They are challenging to shape and machine.