Today, the ceramics industry, particularly the sector dedicated to the tile production, has achieved levels of technological sophistication that would have been difficult to imagine 4,500 years ago when tiles started to become widespread.

An example of how large this industry has become can be found in the production figures for 2004, when more than 6,900 million m² of tiles, approximately one m² per person, were manufactured.

Each of these tiles is made up of a clay based support and a glassy cover, the glaze. FMC Foret provides chemical products necessary to both components:

• Deflocculants, that allow the dispersion and stabilization of the clay suspension in water. FMC Foret has developed several types of Liquid and Solid Deflocculants.
• Raw materials for the glaze, such as Sodium Tripolyphosphate (also used as a deflocculant) and Dicalcium Phosphate.