Ceramext has developed a unique patented process to efficiently produce high quality patented ceramic compositions made from numerous waste materials. Pilot plants using this technology have produced several thousand square feet of high quality, high strength, and impermeable tile and other products.
The “Process for Hot-Forging Synthetic Ceramic” is in a process patent issued on August 11, 2015 (US Pat 9,102,569) and assigned to Ceramext LLC. It has successfully developed pilot plants to produce high quality ceramic tile with newly patented ceramic compositions from numerous waste materials.
The composition of the Ceramext tiles comprises natural mineral clasts fused together by a glass phase from partial melting, wherein the glass phase is solid and directly bonds to the clasts, wherein the glass phase comprises a crystallite, wherein at least a portion of the composition has plasticity such that the composition is plastically deformable in a certain temperature range.
Having developed its hot-forging methods, Ceramext technology can transform low-cost waste materials into advanced impermeable high strength patented ceramic compositions. Some new ceramic compositions are derived from such waste material as mine tailings, reservoir sediments, quarry fines, biomass ash, and coal fly ash. This technology can produce high quality ceramic products suitable for marketing at competitive prices. Waste materials can be recycled using this technology to produce high quality floor, wall and roof tiles, building cladding, bricks, pavers, countertops, and other ceramic products.
Commercial ceramics can be manufactured with this technology from about 90% of the rocks within the earth’s crust, while the other 10% can be blended as well. Ceramic products made with this technology can contain up to 100% recycled content (with no binders added) and provide an opportunity for highly sustainable manufacturing in the ceramics industry. Every year, in the U.S. alone, hundreds of millions of tons of usable waste are disposed of in landfills. The U.S. has consumed about 3 billion square feet of tile per year, of which about 80% is imported. Several thousand square feet of high-quality ceramic tile have been produced successfully in pilot plants using Ceramext technology and installed in commercial and residential buildings with superior results.
In 1974 Del Guenther (photo above in Cusco), who was teaching at a university in Peru, helped guide his brother Ross Guenther to several archaeology sites in Peru and Bolivia in a quest to determine the nature of some of the ancient building materials. Now, a half century later, Ross determines that some of the high quality Ceramext building products he created, have certain similarities to some of the ancient building blocks. Some of the best quality Ceramext products are from crushed rock (generally fine sand size) from andesite, diorite, basalt (and other rocks containing minerals with sodium oxides that act as a flux). This material is transformed to a plastically deformable state at a temperature sufficient to initiate partial melting, then transferred to a press, pressing the plastically deformable green material in a die under pressure (or transferring the heated green material over a cavity, and punching the plastic deformable green material into an opening to form a punched-out tile) and cooling the tile or other products. The ceramic remains plastically deformable when reheated to the initial forming temperature.