Nested Hierarchical Design Application in Production of Ceramic Glazed Floor Tiles

The challenges of using locally available materials in Nigeria to meet the tiles demand that will be affordable and compete favourably with imported products will no doubt not only contribute to our Gross Domestic Product but also meet the yearning of the Federal Government on her local content policy. This necessitated this study to aim at the production of ceramic floor tiles with clays modified with naturally occurring materials. An experimental method was adopted to carry out this research work. Different clay samples were purposively gotten from Mbaukwu town, Anambra State, Nigeria. Rice husk, silt, feldspar, quartz was obtained to serve as modifiers. An elaborate nested experimental design, structured as an analytical hierarchy process, and festooned with three base materials, 4-modifiers, and with replications, facilitated the achievement of the production. The nested design was developed to guide in the optimum combination of materials that will give the best yield of tiles. The base materials were used in combination with the four modifiers at different percentage levels. The tiles produced were subjected to same test in order to ascertain their behavior in terms of weather, resistance to abrasion, compatibility with mortar, water absorption, dilute acid, Sodium Hydroxide and detergent. The experimental tiles produced compete favorably with any foreign product as it was seen to match up with “Vetrified tiles” and “Gomex tile” from Italy and satisfies NIS 427: 2000. Glazed ceramic floor tiles have been successfully manufactured locally using clay and other naturally occurring materials and it has given excellent performance characteristics.