Natural Ball Clay Ceramic Membrane Fabrication Using Full Factorial Design for Screening

A screening design is used to assess a large number of process or design parameters to identify the most influential factors that affect the process performance. This study investigates factors affecting the fabrication of natural ball clay (NBC) ceramic membranes using the 24 full factorial design (FFD) with two replications at each point. The factors studied were: particle size of the sawdust, percentage of sawdust, amount of binder, and sintering temperature. The FFD study results indicated that the sawdust particle size and the percentage of sawdust had a positive impact on the porosity and mechanical strength of the NBC ceramic membrane. This demonstrates the importance of performing a screening experiment prior to an extensive investigation of certain factors such as in the optimization studies. A screening process was developed for the fabrication of natural ball clay (NBC) ceramic membranes, focusing on the porosity and mechanical strength as response variables by using a full factorial design. The particle size and percentage of sawdust had a positive impact on the porosity and mechanical strength of the NBC ceramic membranes.