ScienceAsia 6 (1980): 090-100 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.1980.06.090

INVESTIGATION OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH OF THAI CERAMIC PRODUCTS

DANIEL BREEN,^a WEERAPONG PAESUWAN, KIM SAKTUSNA, SOMCHAI TEPARAK and PORNTHEP TRIVIRIYANUPARA

Summary: Traditional ceramics are an important handicraft industry in northern Thailand. While of good artistic quality, the products have low physical strength. Design is limited by the necessity to achieve strength by thickness of ceramic material. The present work provides measurements of the modulus of rupture, which is a parameter of the physical strength. The shortcomings of the traditional products are readily seen by contrast with a product of the newly established Ceramics Branch of the Industrial Services Institute. Chiang Mai. The same materials have been studied at microscopic level where structural faults that influence physical strength are identified. The results of measurements of electrical properties are also included. It is suggested that measurement of the modulus of rupture is a convenient method of quality control in the handicraft industry.

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Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand

a Present address: Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut Institute of Technology, Ladkrabang Bangkok

Received 15 January 1980