Feasible glass‐melting process assisted by microwaves

[EN] The advantages of microwave (MW) energy processing have been verified in the sintering of a ceramic frit at a pre-industrial scale. The challenge of achieving high temperature using MW energy at such dimensions was overcome and a mix of natural raw materials was heated until its fluxing point. Changes in dielectric properties of the raw materials mix were also measured in situ with the increase in temperature, being in accordance to thermal processes of a conventional heating process. The properties of the resulting ceramic frit were compared with the same frit obtained by the conventional sintering method. Both frits showed similar thermal behavior regarding DTA-TGA, heating microscop…