Ceramic tile is utilized in a variety of manners in construction. The history of ceramic tile goes back at least 4000 years. Its origins are believed to be in ancient Egypt. In addition, ceramic tile adorned the surfaces in ancient pyramids, the remnants of ruins in Ancient Greece, as well as Babylon.http://www.thetiledoctor.com/history.cfm Tile was also found in Ancient Rome, and it was remarkably preserved in Pompeii, which was buried in ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.http://www.tileusa.com/historysp.htm

Tile making in North America began in the 1800s when settlers from Europe brought the trade with them. Tile had been manufactured there for years prior to bringing it to the Americas. Tiles were fired in a kiln to help solidify the tile. It also helped melt glaze on the tile, helping it stick to the surface. It was a slow, painstaking task that was extremely time consuming.http://www.tileusa.com/historysp.htm Today, the use of the roller-hearth kiln has cut the time needed to fire a batch down considerably. In addition, it also has created the ability for tiles in a batch to be more uniform. The consistency of the kiln, both in temperature throughout and in the amount of time each tile goes through, helps make for a more consistent product, improving the output of each batch being processed.http://www.tileusa.com/historysp.htm

There are a variety of methods that can be employed in the manufacture of ceramic tile. The most commonly used method in tile production today is the pressed dust method. In this method, a mixture of clays, talc and other ingredients are compressed into a mold at high pressure, sometimes up to seven tons, to create the tile itself. It then runs through a drying stage, removing the vast majority of the water involved before going on to the finishing stage.

There also is the extrusion method, where the ingredients are wetter than that of the pressed dust method, and are sprayed into a mold through a nozzle. The slush mold or wet pour technique involves an almost batter like consistency, where the ingredients are poured in the mold not unlike a cake would be poured into a pan, to form the proper shape desired. Finally, there is the rampress, which is extremely similar to the pressed dust method, only with the tiles being much larger in size.http://www.thetiledoctor.com/tile_manufac.cfm

The evolution of kiln firing has become remarkably apparent in recent years as well. In the early times of tile making, the beehive kiln was the method of choice. It was slow and required large amounts of labor. It also took up to twenty four hours to fire things once, making it difficult to have large orders done in a timely fashion.http://www.tileusa.com/historysp.htm The tunnel kiln made things faster, as tile moved continuously through the kiln, cutting the time down to between eight and ten hours. With the invention of the roller-hearth kiln in the 1960s, the time has been cut down to less than an hour, and much of the labor has been taken out as tiles can be fed into the kiln automatically.http://www.thetiledoctor.com/tile_manufac.cfm