Bonding Test for Installed Wall and Floor Tiles

what are you trying to accomplish. it sounds like you may be hard plating older ceramic tile to withstand impact forces.

have you thought of just paying the inspector off? i know from experience that's it's a lot cheaper than trying to comply to ridiculous engineering spectafications.

Dear Sir,

Appreciate your feedback.

Actually, we are assessing the bonding of installed tiles for new building. The requirement is at least 0.2N/mm2. So, for a 300mm x 300mm tile size, the pull off load is about 18KN and this is twice the atm pressure. Thus suction approach ie suction cup or octopus suction legs is not feasible.

tks

Noel

my understanding is that you are epoxying a plate to the top of a tile of unknown material. generally speaking, a highly stiffened plate is needed, possibly by welding stifteners to the top of the lifting plate. you want the stress to be applied evenly across the face of the tile rather than just one corner for example. secondly, the attachment point to the lifting devise must seft-adjust to pull evenly against the tile. thirdly, attach a sacrafical plate to the bottom of the lifting device that can be removed and replaced easily.

Dear Sir,

The unknow material is ceramic tile. Thank you for pointing out the stress and other related issues.

The mild steel plate is rather heavy. Do you know any lighter material which can be used to substitute the mild steel plate. Thinking of using Aluminium alloy 7075. What do you think ?

Another issue is to remove the epoxy after test. Currently the hardened epoxy is physical removed by hammering, a laborious and noisy process.

Is there any Non Destructive approach (ie sound frequency or pulse) which can be used to evaluate the bonding strength of newly installed ceramic tile.

thank

Noel

• "So, for a 300mm x 300mm tile size, the pull off load is about 18KN and this is twice the atm pressure. Thus suction approach ie suction cup or octopus suction legs is not feasible."

I don't know if it's feasible but have you thought about building the test rig inside a pressure vessel? You could then increase the pressure (probably 3 atmospheres would do it) inside the vessel so that a suction cup could supply a sufficient force to test the adhesive.

i don't understand the testing technic. are you testing by using a vertical or lateral load? also, the hydraulic jack has me confused.

The hydraulic pump and jack is to provide direct loading perpendicularly to the tile. It can be either horizontal for wall tile and vertical for floor tile.

tks

noel

Glue other steel plates on top of the first one and beneath the tile, using an even stronger epoxy. Then continue to use a hydraulic cylinder to test the weaker bond. Surface grinding might be able to remove the old epoxy in order to reuse the test setup.

I agree with Tornado, permanently attaching the the steel plates. Is the epoxy thickness thick enough that a fixture could be attached that would allow you to slide in the part to be bonded? bond, test and slide back out? minimize fixture cleaning time.

If you don't want to remove the adhesive mechanically, perhaps there is a chemical solution. I'd suggest posing that question in the chemical engineering section.