Glaze Crazing and Shivering
The fired glaze exhibits a network of fine cracks. These may be plainly visible after firing or may need enhancement with ink. Crazing may also appear after a period of time or after ware has been exposed to thermal shock. Fired strength (an thus functional ware quality) are directly related to crazing since ware strength is enhanced by having the glaze under slight compression whereas it is severely reduced (up to four times less) when the glaze is under tension. If the underlying clay matrix is porous and soaks up water then safety could be a concern with crazed ware since the cracks could be wide enough to provide a friendly breeding ground for colonies of bacteria. Containers used to store food are a special concern since a small colony in a crack can become a large culture in the food. If you have any doubt whether this is an important issue ask a commercial food service inspector about the subject.
Is the crazing a result of mistreatment of ware during use?
If pieces must survive considerable thermal shock during use, then both ware and glaze need to have a low and linear thermal expansion curve and they must be compatible. This is difficult to achieve in low fire ware because little mullite or other low-expansion silicate minerals develop during firing. If your low fire body contains significant talc, reduce or eliminate it (also adjust glazes to have a lower expansion so they continue to fit the body). If your high fire body develops non-linear expanding cristobalite during firing, find a way to reduce this.
Is crazing a result of inappropriate choice of manufacturing method or materials?
High temperature firing is by far the best for the production of low-expansion ware. Many more minerals are available for both body and glaze mixes and higher temperatures produce low-expansion silicates and aluminates that give tough glaze and body matrixes capable of withstanding forces that might otherwise cause crazing.
If ceramic ware is porous it can soak up water that causes the ware to expand, thereby putting tension on the glaze and crazing it.
Is crazing due to a simple thermal expansion mismatch between body and glaze?
Fired ceramic expands and contracts as it is heated. If the fired glaze has a significantly higher co-efficient of expansion than the body then no amount of careful firing or thin glazing will avoid the inevitable crazing. This is by far the most common cause of crazing and solution strategies are case studies of applying ceramic calculations to solve problems. If even only one piece crazes it is often a sign that all the other ware in that kiln will eventually craze. Such glazes usually need drastic changes since crazing is a visible manifestation of a fit problem that has already greatly reduced ware strength. Lower temperatures are far more sensitive in this respect in that there is a much narrower range within which a glaze and body will be compatible.
To improve glaze fit adjust the clay body to give it higher expansion and thereby the greater contraction that compresses glazes to prevent crazing (i.e. increase silica for high temperature bodies, talc at low fire). You can also adjust the glaze to reduce its expansion. There are many ways to do this. For example, if the glaze is melting well and it is not a matte, try increasing the silica. Or try introducing boron at the expense of some of the flux since B2O3 contributes to both glass development and melting. You can also introduce fluxing oxides of lower expansion at the expense of those with higher expansion in such a way that the fired properties are not changed too much; for example try adding CaO, MgO, or ZnO at the expense of Na2O and K2O (crazing is most serious with sodium and potassium glazes, to demonstrate mix nepheline syenite and water and apply as a glaze and fire at high temperature). If your glaze is opaque try using more low-expansion zirconium opacifier or use it instead of tin or titanium. Zirconium opacifiers are also useful in transparent glazes; they have a threshold amount under which they do not normally opacify. Thus it might be possible to add as much as 5% to make the glaze both more durable and reduce its expansion.
Consider also the elasticity of the glaze as even relatively well fitted ones
can craze if exposed to radical temperature changes. High levels of sodium,
potassium and calcium can make the glaze more brittle (the former also increase
thermal expansion). Boric oxide is known to improve elasticity.
If the body expansion is too low (i.e. ovenware and flameware bodies) it can be very difficult to fit a glaze that has the desired visual characteristics. Lithium can dramatically reduce the thermal expansion of glazes, but its use requires a lot of testing since its contribution is not linear and it introduces other dynamics that must be considered.
Could the Coloring Oxides in the Glaze be Involved?
Generally increased additions of iron and copper oxide to a glaze will reduce crazing (if they are present in adequate amounts; beyond 1 or 2 percent). Cobalt could have a moderate lowering effect, but since so little is typically used in glazes it will not be significant.
Is the crazing a result an under fired body?
Underfired bodies may contain uncombined alkali or alkaline earths than can
react with water and swell the body. You can test this by putting a glazed
sample in a pressure cooker for several hours or put a shard into an autoclave
to see if crazing appears. Calcium carbonate is added to talc bodies to minimize
moisture expansion.
Is the crazing a result of sloppy manufacture?
Normally a glaze/body combination with compatible expansion characteristics will withstand considerable firing and usage abuse without displaying signs of crazing. However, in some cases, a glaze that otherwise 'fits' will craze if applied very thick.
Also, if the kiln is cooled very quickly or unevenly, especially if ware is thicker, the severe stresses can produce crazing. However remember that a glaze's ability to withstand normal or even quick kiln cooling is an indicator of its ability to resist crazing in normal use.
Is ware crazing days or even months after firing?
If you are cooling your kiln very slowly to prevent ware from crazing it is likely the glaze does not fit. While it may be true that slower firing seems to solve the problem, time will bring out the crazing that the kiln did not. In fact if you must slow cool to prevent crazing it is a virtual certainty that your glaze needs to have its thermal expansion reduced.
Shivering
Shivering is just the opposite of crazing, the glaze is under compression and flakes off, especially at edges. It is much less common simply because glazes tend to have a higher thermal expansion than bodies and because they can tolerate being under compression much better than being under tension. When the body-glaze interface is not well developed the problem will be much worse. This is serious because a few shivered tiles coming out of the kiln, for example, could mean that all of them will shiver with time! The problem is a mismatch between the thermal expansion of body and glaze, nothing will fix it except raising the COE of the glaze (or lowering the body COE). It is conceptually easy to adjust a glaze using INSIGHT software, just increase the Na2O. However in fast-fire settings, Na2O can cause bubbling. Fast fire glazes have lower B2O3, higher ZnO and CaO, lower Na2O and higher SiO2. You just need to work within these guidelines. Still, there is a good chance your glaze can handle the addition of some Na2O. But you cannot just add soda feldspar, it contains Na2O, Al2O3 and SiO2 (theoretically of course), you do not want the Al2O3 and SiO2, you only want the Na2O. That is the purpose of INSIGHT software, to figure out how to adjust the glaze recipe so that the only change in the chemistry is an increase in the Na2O. In this case you would have to calculate how much to reduce the kaolin and silica in the recipe (because they contribute Al2O3 and SiO2). The lessons section in the INSIGHT software manual demonstrates this. However, before doing that, check your clay body. Has it changed? Can you measure its COE and compare with past runs. A common cause of changes in body COE is the inclusion of scrap and recycle in production material (alteration in material makeup is common in scrap).
Special Note: Solving crazing and shivering problems while retaining the visual character of a glaze is a classic problem for the application of ceramic chemistry calculations. There is a chapter in the lesson section of the INSIGHT manual on how to deal with this problem, it is a very practical approach.
Out Bound Links
In Bound Links
Pictures
Example of serious glaze shivering using G1215U low expansion glaze on a high silica body at cone 6.
Example of crazing in a glaze
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