Book: Clay bricks and roof tiles

Clay bricks and roof tiles, manufacturing and properties, by Dr M. Kornmann

The book can be ordered at la SIM, 17 rue Saint Séverin, F75005 Paris, www.lasim.org Email: contact@lasim.org, or www.lasim.org

Some years ago, the French Heavy Clay Industry commissioned the book “Matériaux de construction en terre cuite, Fabrication et propriétés”, which was published at the beginning of 2005. The French edition received a very warm welcome and this book was generally judged very helpful. At the same time, it was noticed that since the reference book by Bender and Händle (1982), no recent technical book has been available in the international literature. Then it was decided to update this work and translate it into English, to share it with the European Industry and non-French-speaking colleagues.

This book was written by Dr Michel Kornmann, former Technical manager of the CTTB (Technical Centre for Roof tiles and Bricks in Paris) with the help of a number of engineers of the CTTB specialising in ceramics, construction and environment. This book is designed for all those with a basic scientific knowledge who do not know this material well but use it, or who have an interest in it: ceramic engineers, building engineers and technicians, architects, real estate experts, students and anyone concerned with tiles and bricks.

The objective of this book is to outline the present state of science and techniques of heavy clays as clearly as possible. The book deals with raw materials (clay in the quarry and additives in the clay mixture), the fundamentals of processing (clay mixture preparation, product shaping, drying, firing, etc.), plant and machinery. The impact of the environment and the industry’s search for quality are reviewed. In addition, the mechanical, thermal, moisture related and durability properties of the products are studied. The development offered by new technologies and the potential of new products are also dealt with. Finally, the new European standardization and the CE marking are discussed.

Size 160 x 250 mm, Number of pages 292– 77 figures, 83 tables, 38 photos and 6 appendices

ISBN 2-9517765-6-X