Substitute Ferro Frit 3134 For Another Frit

I use my Insight-live account to do the glaze chemistry to replace Ferro frit 3134 with combinations of three other common Ferro frits. We will see the challenges of doing this in three different types of recipes.

A. Insight-live

You can also watch this at Screencast-o-matic.com

Transcript/Notes

First look at the glaze flow test that compares 3124 with 3134: They fire much different, 3124 does not melt nearly as well.

Recipe 1:
In my Insight-live account I'll open the first one, it has 20% frit 3134.
Duplicate it, edit the 3134 line to 3124, click Done and turn on the formula.

more..

The Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ are up, the B₂O₃ is down.
In calculation mode increase the frit from 20 to 35 to match the B₂O₃.
But now the Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ are high. Drop the kaolin and silica to re-match them.
That was easy. We used more 3124 and dropped kaolin and silica.

Recipe 2:
It is more tricky because the B₂O₃ is double, there is more frit, there is only 10% kaolin. I will have to cut the feldspar to reduce the Al₂O₃.
Duplicate the recipe, change the frit, click Done and turn on the formula.
In calculation mode, reduce the feldspar until the Al₂O₃ matches - removing all fo the feldspar does not reduce the Al₂O₃ enough! And the B₂O₃ is high and alot of KNaO has been lost.
We need a frit that is high in sodium, low in boron and alumina: Frit 3110
Add 10 parts 3110 and reduce the other frit by the same. Bump up the 3110 to re-match the KNaO. We lost B₂O₃ in doing that.
We need a more concentrated source of boron: Frit 3195. Add 10 to the recipe and reduce 3124 by 10. Remove the feldspar and increment the 3195 by 5 and decrement the 3124 by 5 until the boron matches.
Nudge the kaolin down until the Al₂O₃ matches.
Retotal the recipe to 100.
The cost is up. We ended up removing the feldspar and replacing frit 3134 with three other frits.

Recipe 3:
The frit percentage is high and there is plenty of clay and silica.
Duplicate and replace the frit as in the others.
The boron is down and the Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ have skyrocketed.
Reduce the kaolin and silica to re-match the Al₂O₃ and SiO₂.
Boron was lost, we need help from a more concentrated boron frit: Add 15 frit 3195 and reduce the 3124 by the same.
In calculation mode reduce 3195 and increase 3124 until B₂O₃ matches.
Fine tune the Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ by adjusting kaolin and silica.
Retotal the recipe and assess what we did.
The EPK was cut in half (but still enough to float the slurry) and silica is down also.
A mix of 3124 and 3195 supplied the boron and other fluxes.

Using this chemistry approach brings a high degree of confidence that the adjusted recipes will fire the same as the originals.

Links

Media

Create a Synthetic Feldspar in Insight-Live
A step-by-step of how to duplicate the chemistry of Minspar by mixing other materials. You will learn the calculate process, the type of testing to do and how to keep track of the results with notes, pictures and links.