Determination of the wear resistance of traditional ceramic tile glazes using a pin-on-disk tribometer

Wear resistance is a key ceramic tile property when it comes to determining foreseeable tile response to mechanical aggressions (scratching and wear) under intended service conditions. The main purpose of the present study consists of subjecting materials of a ceramic nature to wear in a pin-on-disk tribometer in order to characterise these and subsequently to correlate the results with those obtained using other standard techniques, as well as with the microstructure of the materials. The results obtained for the different materials indicated that the presence of crystalline structures in the fired glaze coating raised the wear resistance of these materials, this being greater when the crystals present were smaller. The presence of these crystals in the fired glaze modifies glaze mechanical properties (microhardness, modulus of elasticity, and toughness), microstructure, and wear resistance.