Deflocculants are additives that lower the viscosity of slips and glazes. They allow working with more solids and less water, raising milling throughput and saving energy in drying.
In ceramic suspensions, particles tend to attract each other and form clusters, which makes the mixture thick and hard to pump. A deflocculant is an additive that separates these particles and keeps them dispersed, lowering viscosity without adding water.
How a deflocculant performs depends on the clays and raw materials of each plant. The ideal dose is found with the deflocculation curve, a laboratory test run with the customer’s material that measures viscosity as the amount of additive increases.
The suspension can thicken again or become unstable. The deflocculation curve shows exactly the point beyond which more additive makes things worse.
They do opposite jobs. A deflocculant disperses the particles and thins the suspension. A flocculant draws the particles together to give the suspension body and control settling.
Need a tailor-made raw material? Our technical team develops the formulation together with your process.
Talk to our technical team