Descriptive study on the factors affecting the use of locally made ceramic products

Abstract

Ceramics include tiles, pots, art-ware, dinnerware, pottery, brick, and toilet seats and these are normally referred to as customary or silicate-based ceramics. Whilst these conventional products have been and continue to be, important to civilization, a new class of ceramics has transpired - that most people are unaware of. These advanced or technical or modern or industrial ceramics are being used for applications such as space shuttle tile, engine components, artificial bones and teeth, computers and other electronic components, and cutting tools, just to name a few. Ceramics can be defined as inorganic, non-metallic materials that are typically produced using clay and other minerals from the earth or chemically processed powders. Ceramics are typically crystalline and are compounds formed between metallic and non-metallic elements such as aluminum and oxygen (alumina – Al2O3), silicon and nitrogen (silicon nitride – Si3N4), silicon and carbon (silicon carbide – SiC), etc. The word Ceramic is derived from the Greek word ‘Keramos’ meaning ‘potter’ or ‘pottery’. Keramos in turn originated from a Sanskrit root – meaning ‘to burn’. Hence, the word Keramos was to infer ‘burned substance’ or ‘burned earth’.