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Sanitary ware

Sanitary ware is an essential element in any modern bathroom, guaranteeing hygiene and comfort for users. It is an environmentally friendly material, whose elements are both durable and easy to clean. Sanitary ware also features a wide range of styles, colours, and sizes, making it easy to find something that suits all tastes and home décors. In addition to these characteristics, it is resistant to corrosion, shock, and wear, as well as being thermally and optically insulating. Overall, sanitary ware is a versatile and reliable material that is a great option for any home.

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Special rooms, in which baths and washbasins were installed, appeared a little more than a century and a half ago. Until that time, people used containers with jugs to carry out water procedures. In wealthy houses this “equipment” was made of porcelain, while in simpler houses it was made of earthenware or copper. Since then, living conditions have changed – new scientific developments today make it possible to manufacture bathroom products and accessories from completely new, comfortable and high-quality materials. However, most of the modern plumbing equipment is still made from sanitary ware..

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Sanitary ware – what is it?

Indispensable and very important elements of a bathroom – a toilet bowl and a sink are often combined into one capacious term – sanitary ware. Indeed, most of the plumbing is made of faience. But it would not be entirely correct to call all the plumbing fixtures faience. Basically, all toilet bowls, sinks, like bathtubs, are made of steel, polymers or ceramics. Ceramics is a traditional material for household sanitary ware. Faience is a higher quality subspecies of ceramics.

Faience – a mass of white clay with the addition of kaolin and quartz components. It is fired at a temperature of 1100–1200 C. It is used in the production of sanitary ware, tableware, and decorative items. The fracture strength of faience is low, but it is quite hard. In terms of reliability, faience is not much inferior to porcelain. For the manufacture of earthenware, the same raw materials are used as for the production of porcelain, only the recipe of raw materials and the technology of firing products change. The sanitary ware contains fewer high-quality types of clay, and it is fired in a different mode.

By itself, the earthenware shard is porous, intensively picks up moisture, absorbs dirt and odors, differs in greater porosity and water absorption (9-12%) than porcelain. Therefore, to make faience products of higher quality, they are covered with glaze or enamel (transparent, white or glassy colored).

Production technology

A solution of special materials is poured into molds, a shard is formed. In the manufacture of large sanitary ware from earthenware, a single firing is usually used, in which the components of the earthenware mass are simultaneously sintered, and the glaze is melted. The glaze layer performs not only a decorative function, but also protects the walls from particularly aggressive substances and provides more effective cleaning of the product when flushed. In addition, new firing technologies guarantee a “dirt repelling” effect. If in the plumbing of the old generation moisture spread over the surface of the product and the dirt was gradually absorbed into the walls, now drops of water roll off the surface and the dirt does not stick.

Quality and characteristics

According to experts, ceramics, including earthenware, the better, the closer in properties it is to glass – an almost eternal material. Why does the quality of earthenware products depend??

1. Raw materials. The quality of faience sanitary ware depends on the homogeneity of the raw materials, which are carefully processed and selected.

2. Burning. The firing of sanitary ware is carried out according to a special step-by-step mode – with exposures at a certain temperature. This is an important point because if you overshoot the 600 ° C mark too quickly, the organic compounds present in the clay may not completely burn out. Incorrectly fired specimens quickly lose color, have an irregular shape and are easily destroyed. Uneven, shallow firing causes hidden defects that can develop into cracks over time.

2. Excellence in technology. Modern developments to use various decorative elements and new design in the production of sanitary ware.

Thus, with the combination of the three above elements, faience from porcelain is difficult to distinguish: the price is the same, and the appearance. The only drawback of sanitary ware is fragility and instability to mechanical damage. However, porcelain has a similar drawback.

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Comments: 2
  1. Skylar Thompson

    What are some important factors to consider when selecting sanitary ware for a bathroom renovation?

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    1. Hannah Hamilton

      Some important factors to consider when selecting sanitary ware for a bathroom renovation include aesthetics, functionality, durability, and compatibility. Aesthetics involve choosing products that align with the overall design and theme of the bathroom. Functionality considers how well the sanitary ware meets the needs of the users, such as efficient water usage, easy maintenance, and reliable performance. Durability is crucial as it ensures that the chosen sanitary ware can withstand daily use and last for a long time. Compatibility involves considering the dimensions and layout of the bathroom to ensure that the selected sanitary ware fits properly and does not hinder the functionality of other bathroom fixtures.

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