Table of Contents

Introduction

Rock dust is either used as a clay substitute, or a sand substitute to make tiles. For baked tiles, rock fines from washed M-sand is used. Cement tiles can use the quarry dust that is a mixture of fine and coarser particles, that is left over from crushing rocks into metal.

Roof Tiles

A study in Bangladesh found that a mixture of 40% rock dust, with red clay and fired at 900 °C, gave tiles with low water absorption and better strength.

Similar studies need to be done with local rock dust, and clay, to find the correct proportion. Fired tiles will need the finer dust from washed M-sand.

Cement roof tiles can also be made [2].

Flooring Tiles

Clay is enriched by the addition of rock fines, and then fired to make tiles [2].

Floor tiles made with rock sand as aggregate, have higher compressive strength.