Fusion Frit F-493

Alternate Names: Fusion Frit F493

Description: High lithium, high alkali frit

Oxide	Analysis	Formula
K2O	6.00%	0.10
Li2O	11.00%	0.59
Na2O	11.70%	0.30
B2O3	13.20%	0.31
Al2O3	6.30%	0.10
SiO2	51.80%	1.39
Oxide Weight		160.89
Formula Weight		160.89

Notes

This analysis was confirmed with Fusion Sept 2013. Excellent for replacing Spodumene in glazes (to eliminate its frothing and bubbling issues), this contains a higher percentage of lithia plus contributes other oxides that most glazes need. However it also has a very high thermal expansion.

This is an example of how much sense it makes to use a fritted form of a flux like lithia rather than the pure, and very troublesome, lithium carbonate. And it is fairly easy to do calculations (e.g. in your insight-live.com account) to substitute zinc in many existing boron fluxed recipes.

This should be more commonly available than it is. Volume users buy this by the pallet for their production, it's high cost amortizes down well considering the benefit it brings. A typical potter would be aghast at the price. Until he saw what this can do!

Related Information

Frits instead of raw zinc, lithium, barium, strontium

zinc, lithium, barium, strontium oxide powders

Raw material sources of zinc, lithium, barium, strontium have issues (e.g. precipitates in glaze slurries, toxicity, high drying shrinkage and carbon burnoff that affect laydown and fired surface defects like pinholes, blisters, orange peeling, crystallization). Yet the oxides that these materials supply to the glaze melt - ZnO, Li₂O, BaO and SrO, can be sourced from frits which melt much better and remove most of the problems. Consider examples made by Fusion:
-Frit F-493 has 11% Li₂O
-F-403 has 35% BaO
-F-581 has 39% SrO
-FZ-16 has 15% ZnO
These frits source other oxides but such are common in most glazes and glaze calculation can be used to retain the overall chemistry. Although these are expensive, the benefits are game changers. But there is a problem: Potters can't get these. Therefore they have difficulty creating the dazzling visual effects of many commercial glazes.

Links

Materials	Frit Frits are made by melting mixes of raw materials, quenching the melt in water, grinding the pebbles into a powder. Frits have chemistries raw materials cannot.
Materials	Lithium Carbonate A powerful melter very valuable in ceramic glazes. It is 40% Li2O and has an LOI of 60% (lost as CO2 on firing). This material in now incredibly expensive.
Materials	Spodumene Spodumene is a lithium sourcing feldspar, an alternative to lithium carbonate to supply Li2O to ceramic glazes. Contains up to about 8% Li2O.
Typecodes	Frit A frit is the powdered form a man-made glass. Frits are premelted, then ground to a glass. They have tightly controlled chemistries, they are available for glazes of all types.

Data

Co-efficient of Linear Expansion	14.13
Frit Softening Point	1300F

By Tony Hansen
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