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US 4,061,502 AGranted
Ball clay
AssigneeEnglish Clays Lovering Pochin & Company Limited
InventorWilliam Windle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of improving the properties of ball clay is disclosed which comprises forming a deflocculated aqueous suspension of the ball clay at a specified solids content; passing the suspension through one or more vibrated sieves, at least one of which has a nominal aperture in the range of from 50 to 100 microns; and thermally drying the material after it has been flocculated.
Claims12
A method of improving the properties of a ball clay, which method comprises the steps of:
- a. suspending the raw ball clay in water containing a dispersing agent to form a deflocculated suspension the solids content of which is in the range of from 55% to 75% by weight;
- b. passing the deflocculated aqueous suspension of raw ball clay through one or more vibrated sieves, at least one of which has a nominal aperture in the range of from 50 to 100 microns;
- and
- c. flocculating the sieved material and subjecting the flocculated material to thermal drying.
1 more element
A method of improving the properties of a ball clay, which method comprises the steps of:
- a. suspending the raw ball clay in water containing a dispersing agent to form a deflocculated suspension the solids content of which is in the range of from 60% to 70% by weight and adding an alkali to the suspension so as to adjust the pH of the suspension substantially to the value at which the suspension has minimum viscosity;
- b. passing the deflocculated aqueous suspension of raw ball clay through two vibrated sieves, the first of the two sieves having a relatively coarse mesh with a nominal aperture of not more than about 300 microns and the second of the two sieves having a relatively fine mesh with a nominal aperture of not more than about 75 microns;
- c. flocculating the sieved material by treatment with a dilute mineral acid so as to reduce the pH of the sieved material to a value of from about 2.5 to about 4.5;
- and
- d. subjecting the flocculated material to extrusion or pelletisation and thermally drying the extruded or pelletised material.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.