Patterns on ceramic tiles - how are they manufactured?

[Stephen Tashiro]

A new floor of ceramic tile has tiles that appear to have random patterns. However, when I examine it closely, there are groups of tiles that have identical surfaces - as identical as you might find on vinyl tiles. Is it cheaper to make glazed ceramic tile by some process that creates batches of tiles with identical patterns? How are they manufactured?

My impression of making glazed ceramics is that you'd slather the glaze on randomly to make random patterns and then fire it. However, I see tiles that are not merely similar, they are as identical as you'd get by printing the same image on a batch of tiles. As I was getting ready to put sealer on the floor, I was trying to clean off a gray spot on a tile, thinking it was a spot of stray cement. Then I noticed other tiles in the floor with the same pattern and the same gray spot!

[roger wiegand]

I believe they use the industrial equivalent of an ink jet printer. It's what allows you to make photorealistic tiles with wood grain or a stone appearance. In the past it was done with a rotary screen (think silkscreen only more rugged) process, but the resolution was much lower than digital printing.

[Jim Becker]

They come off a line that uses a stamp to impress the texture. The overall pattern is large enough that without really careful inspection, it will appear to be random and unique across the tiles after they are installed, especially if they are randomly rotated during that process. Coloration is similarly applied, likely how Rodger mentions.

[Peter Kelly]

Is it cheaper to make glazed ceramic tile by some process that creates batches of tiles with identical patterns? How are they manufactured?

A selling point of the more expensive tiles is how many variations of a pattern they make for the same style that they sell.

Prior to installation you always want to unbox all tiles and create an arrangement so the same pattern ones don't end up next to each other.

[Stephen Tashiro]

A selling point of the more expensive tiles is how many variations of a pattern they make for the same style that they sell.

It's amazing to me that technology makes tile manufacture so orderly that we must pay extra for apparent randomness. In advertisements for tile, I don't recall seeing a specification that tells how many different patterns of tiles occur in product. Is there such a specification?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The more variations a given tile model/style has, the more manufacturing processes are required and thus increased expense. Why wouldn't it cause the price of tile going up so the manufacturer can make a profit?

[Stephen Tashiro]

The more variations a given tile model/style has, the more manufacturing processes are required and thus increased expense

If you randomly tossed glazes on an array of unfired tiles there would be only one manufacturing process - and you would have lots of different variations.

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'd suggest they glazes aren't randomly tossed. I'd suggest it's a pattern that appears random but has to be a known color pattern so that adjacent tiles coordinate with each other. Any time more human invention is necessary, labor costs increase.

[Peter Kelly]

For every different print the surface relief has to be modified. Additional design time, tooling, molding lines, etc. The better floor tiles are also porcelain, not ceramic which also drives costs up.

[Stephen Tashiro]

I'd suggest they glazes aren't randomly tossed..

I agree. I'm just saying it might be cheaper to glaze tile that way.

How old is the technology for mass producing floor tile by printing or stamping the glaze patterns on it? (The technology for applying glaze patterns as decals on pottery is old, but it is labor intensive.) 50 years ago, I don't recall seeing tilework where two ceramic tiles had the same "random" pattern. Perhaps I wasn't observant in my youth.

For every different print the surface relief has to be modified.

I don't yet understand what "the surface relief" is. ( I'm talking about floor tiles with flat surfaces.) Does surface relief have to do with a plate that stamps glaze on the tile?

If the tile has several colors, does this require using several stamps?