The production of ball clay vs kaolin production is what matters to potters. Ball clay is an extremely rare rock, found only in a few places in the world. Spherical clay is especially valued as a basic material in the manufacture of ceramics. Ball clay is a kaolinite clay that typically consists of 20 to 80% kaolin, 10 to 25% mica, 6 to 65% quartz, plus organic matter. Clay balls form from weathering and water transport from parent rocks. Welds in the same deposit will vary in composition, depending on the number of base metals and accessories. Ball clay is a high-grained plastic clay used primarily in the manufacture of ceramic sanitary wares and fixtures, where it is valued for its flexibility, flame resistance, and light color when fired. The selected clay can give pure white final products. Among other things, clay balls are also used in refractories, polymers, adhesives, sealants, and horticulture as soil amendments. Combined with kaolin, Imerys spherical clays provide the cohesion and workability needed to create ceramic pieces, such as sanitary ware. Used with kaolin, feldspar, and quartz in tableware, the spherical clay gives great elasticity and a good white color to the final product. In ceramic and floor coverings, spherical clay is valued for its plasticity and adhesive properties. In glass and lid, they ensure a perfect finish. Porcelain electrical insulators contain plastic clay to provide insulation from high voltage currents. 
For refractory applications, Imerys ball clay and high alumina chamotte are used as binders for the production of refractory bricks or as additives to improve plasticity during refractory formulation. Imerys plastic clay is also used as a multifunctional filler and extender to improve the performance of plastics, rubber, adhesives, sealants, fertilizers, and pesticides. It is produced by the chemical weathering of aluminum silicate minerals such as feldspar in igneous and metamorphic rocks under the influence of carbon dioxide. Kaolinite is an important mineral component of many subsurface deposits, especially clay, sandy, belite, marl, and clay deposits. Kaolin is a soft white aluminum silicate mineral named after the hill in China (Kao-ling) from which it has been mined for centuries. Kaolin in its natural state is a fine white powder consisting primarily of the mineral kaolinite and varying amounts of other minerals such as muscovite, quartz, feldspar, and anatase. It is used in the manufacture of crockery and porcelain and is also widely used in the production of paper, rubber, paint, drying agents, and many other products. It has a role as an excipient and as an antidiarrheal drug. It is a mixture of aluminum silicate minerals. Contains kaolin. It is prepared for pharmaceutical and medicinal purposes by lifting with water to remove sand. The primary differentiation of coating grade kaolin is hydrated clay and calcined clay. Wet clay is structurally unmodified, retaining the hydrophilic surface hydroxyl, the so-called water of crystallization. Most of the aqueous clay used in the paint is washed off with water. Water-washed grades are manufactured by suspending slurries in water and then centrifuging or hydrocycling to remove impurities and produce specific particle size fractions. The refined slurry is dried (to reduce soluble impurities) and dried or concentrated to 70% solids and sold as a slurry. Washed clay is often treated with water to improve its luster. 
Although kaolin is found all over the world, deposits with sufficient whiteness, viscosity, and other favorable properties are rare. Ironically, the best deposits are not in China. The United States has high-grade deposits in the southeast. The ore has been mined since colonial times in Georgia and South Carolina. Other valuable deposits are found in Brazil and the United Kingdom. Papermaking: The main use of kaolin is in the paper industry. It acts as a paper coating that improves appearance by contributing to luster, smoothness, and luster. It also improves printability. In addition, it is used by the paper industry as a filler, which reduces costs and the use of tree resources. China, Porcelain, and Tableware: Many people mistakenly believe that the only use of kaolin is to make porcelain. This is not true, and its use in the manufacture of paper far outweighs its other uses. However, kaolin is still a valuable ingredient in porcelain and other tableware. Color, brightness, and hardness are ideal characteristics for this type of product. Other Uses - Kaolin has a variety of other uses in products including coatings, rubber, wire insulation, specialty films, and fertilizers. New uses are discovered frequently and it is ensured that the metal will remain in demand for a long time. 
ball clay
Ball Clay is a rare mineral that can be found in some places around the world. It is often dark brown or black, but when cooked, it is white or cream. Spherical clay generally consists of quartz, mica, and kaolin. Ball clay's unique mineral formula provides a plastic or slimy substance that has been used by civilizations since ancient times. Miners excavate this clay in England and some states in the eastern United States. Ceramics and ground surface materials may contain the substance. The products may contain a single ball of clay or a mixture of clay mixed with other minerals. Ball Clay is mainly made up of kaolinite, mica, and quartz. It has a higher elasticity than china clay due to the soil below the smaller particles. It contains higher amounts of silica and remains white when burned. Most of the Dorset clay balls can be found on the Isle of Purbeck, Wareham Basin. Evidence of Ball Clay mining can be seen at the Blue Pool tourist attraction. In pottery, both China Clay and Ball Clay are used as ingredients to make clay objects, but they are two completely different ingredients. Ball Clay has very high elasticity and excessive shrinkage. It is used to make the clay easier to work with by giving the body of the clay plasticity. China clay is used for its whiteness and purity, but its plasticity is very poor, which makes it difficult to work with. China Clay is best known for its use in Bone China and Porcelain. 
This fine-grained viscous clay is relatively inexpensive but is considered rare due to the geological factors required to form it. Spherical clay consists of varying amounts of kaolin, mica, and quartz. It also often contains trace minerals and carbon by-products. Raw clay generally ranges in color from shades of blue to beige to white, depending on the amount of kaolin and iron oxides in the mix. Companies that manufacture in China often prefer the whiter variety. While potters only purchase the ball of clay in powder form, industrial users have access to the material in many forms (crushed, spaghetti, partially deflated, crushed filter press cake, vacuum-filled extrusion, and crumbled with about a 10 % moisture). These shapes allow for a more consistent supply and a lot of flexibility, especially when making slip molds (as clay balls are the most difficult material to disperse into objects). They are generally unglazed at cone 10. There are a wide variety of clay balls used in traditional North American pottery, and they have similar firing properties (maturity and color). In one test, we made 50:50 clay balls: a feldspar mix of 8 different common clay balls (from a pool of suppliers), taper 6 to 10, all with the same absolute porosity and appearance. Ball clays are used in ceramic objects (porcelain, stoneware and earthenware, slips, pressure objects) due to their plastic nature combined with their high combustion temperature. Spherical clays have extreme dry shrinkage, with high green strength and slow drying. Had it not been for its iron and carbon inclusions, the clay ball would have been an ideal ceramic material. However, in practice, it is used to achieve the desired plasticity but is reduced to reduce the detrimental effect on burnt whiteness and drying properties. 
kaolin
Kaolin is one of the most common minerals on Earth. Like kaolin, it is mined in Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, Australia, Korea, the People's Republic of China, and the United States. Kaolin is a soft, earthy, usually white mineral that results from the chemical weathering of aluminum silicate minerals such as feldspar. In many parts of the world, it is colored pink, orange, and red by iron oxide, which gives it a distinct rusty color. Lighter concentrations of iron oxide produce white, yellow, or light orange colors. There are sometimes alternating layers of colored clay, as in Providence Canyon State Park in Georgia, USA. Our white kaolin clay comes from deposits in Texas, USA, and is heat treated to remove part of the hydroxyl (OH) formula. Calcined kaolin is produced by heating natural ultrafine kaolin at high temperatures in a furnace. The calcining process increases whiteness and hardness and changes the size and shape of the kaolin particles. Kaolin-type clay undergoes a series of transformations when heated in air at atmospheric pressure. Dehydration begins at 550-600 °C to produce a disordered methacholine, Al2Si2O7, but continuous loss of hydroxyl (-OH) is observed up to 900 °C. Due to disagreement over the nature of methacholine, the research has led to a general consensus that methacholine is not a simple mixture of amorphous silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3), but rather a complex amorphous structure that retains a higher order (but strictly amorphous) due to the stacking of its hexagonal layers. 
Between 100 and 200 °C, clay minerals lose most of the adsorbed water. Between 500 and 800 °C, kaolin calcinates by losing water through dehydroxylation. In this temperature range, kaolin converts to methacholine with a two-dimensional order in the crystal structure. To produce pozzolan, almost complete dehydroxylation must be achieved without overheating. This results in a highly pozzolanic and amorphous state, while a higher temperature can cause sintering, to form a dead, non-reactive refractory material called mullite. Applications Calcined kaolin clay is used as a functional extender in coatings. For example, calcined kaolin clay has proven to be an excellent diluent for titanium dioxide (white) pigment in paint. This is because kaolin clay is chemically inert, has a high hiding ability, provides desirable flow properties, and reduces the number of expensive pigments required. Its hardness also improves the physical toughness of the paint film and its resistance to polishing. Kaolin clay is also used in flooring, as painting, and gilding. Kaolin clay can be used in recipes that call for "pipe clay" and mixed with starch or flour to make a thick cream and applied to wooden boards or fabric for coating. The base dries quickly and several very thin layers are applied one by one to form a typical base for 19th-century paintings. 
ball clay vs kaolin production
clay ball vs kaolin: The production of ball clay is different from kaolin. Ball clay vs kaolin production is what potters are concerned about. There are two types of clay. The two types are known as kaolin and spherical clay. There are many types of these two types of clay. In this blog, we will learn about the benefits of Ball Clay, the benefits of Kaolin Clay, and ways to maintain the perfect proportions of workability and plasticity and get great colors for your products. Benefits of kaolin clay: Kaolin is a very nice white clay made, it is very white and is used to coat smooth paper which makes it white. The kaolin type of clay looks like a bunch of sheets, which they call platelets, and they are slightly larger crystals. Kaolin is less plastic. Kaolin Clay benefits by making the product smooth and white. Benefits of the ball clay: On the other hand, ball clay is made differently and has two distinct properties. One is that it contains a lot of organic ingredients due to the way it was created. It also has a distinct crystal structure, usually montmorillonite, and often contains a large number of bentonites. Since the ball dough is fine-grained, its surface area is much larger than that of kaolin clay. As a result, ball clay absorbs much more water than kaolin. The water is now chemically attracted to the clay crystals after interacting with them. However, when you pick it up, sometimes there is more water and it seeps into the spaces between the crystals. Since ball clay is finely grained, there is plenty of open space for water to enter, so it will absorb a lot of water. Now what this means to you is that spherical clay is much more malleable with more water and very fine grains, and lends itself better to form specific shapes. Ball clay, for example, helps with the slip molding process. Improves the extrusion of the mixture, for example, the ram pressure of the mixture. Ball Clay benefits by increasing the flexibility of the mix and making the mix more workable. 
Kaolin (or china clay), and ball clay are the predominant "artificial clay" and are mined for a variety of uses, exploiting the special properties of each of the three clays: Kaolin (Chinese clay): chemically inert and can be prepared as a specific (partially) white powder according to its whiteness and brightness. It is ideal for a wide range of ceramic, filler, and veneer applications where the appearance of the final product is important (Jepson, 1984). It is especially valuable as a surface coating pigment on high-quality glossy paper, which can contain up to 30% metal. It is present as filler in the paper this book is printed on. Ball Clay is a plastic clay used in ceramic manufacturing to provide strength and flexibility to the ceramic structure before firing. Also, during combustion, the spherical clay is one of the components that coalesces to act as a "cement" that binds the non-shrinking refractory components of the ceramic body. Many ceramic items that are produced are cast with spherical clay (such as sanitary ware) and the use of a clay ball is necessary to ensure that the molds do not warp or lose their shape before firing. Kaolin is much less plastic and the color can be made whiter with clean kaolin, but there are lower sides. Kaolin has twice the LOI of spherical clay, so there are likely more gases that need to be bubbled through the glaze (spherical clay pottery balls can produce brilliantly clean glazed results even when fired rapidly, while pure kaolin can produce small pits in the enamel surface if the fires are not steeped enough). Bentonite-plasticized kaolin does not dry as frequently as spherical clay, although drying shrinkage is usually less. Oddly enough, although clay balls are much stiffer and stronger in the dry state, only porcelain clay balls still need some bentonite. If you don't need the whitest result, it seems that using hybrids for both is still the best general purpose and low-cost answer.