Dal-Tile
American Olean® and Daltile® are perhaps the most widely recognized names in ceramic tile. The beauty of natural stones can be a part of your next design application. From beautiful flat field tiles to artistic decos, these natural stones come in an array of colors and designs, adding elegance to any room. Please click on this Dal Tile site and enter a world of architecture and design, then come into our Flooring America store and experience these tiles first-hand!
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Marazzi Tile
Marazzi Tile was founded by Filippo Marazzi in Sassuolo, Italy in 1935. The original plant was constructed on a wooden platform attached to four conveniently located poplar trees. From that humble beginning the company has grown into a global network called the Marazzi Group, the largest producer of glazed and unglazed ceramic tile in the world. The Group consists of 17 manufacturing plants with approximately 4,000 employees that produce and sell over 800 million square feet of tile per year.

Interceramic Tile
Have you ever wondered how wall tile can begin basically as dirt and end up as your beautiful kitchen countertops and backsplashes, virtually impervious to damage? Well, we took a look at Interceramic's Garland, Texas wall tile factory to get the dirt on tile. Interceramic begins the production process by procuring the finest raw materials available. The body is a combination of the earth's natural resources and elements including silica, talc and calcium carbonate. Each of these ingredients is inspected for quality prior to entering the production process. The bulk clay is then broken down into a more manageable state in the crushers. Then the various clays are loaded onto large conveyors where they are delivered to storage silos where each raw material has its own silo.

Interceramic
Water and clay, in precise proportions, are then loaded into ball mills. These mills contain high density alumina balls which grind the clay into a fine homogeneous mixture. The result is a product called body slip. Its viscosity is similar to that of a milkshake. The product then mills for several hours and is tested for viscosity, density and residue to see if further milling is required. From the ball mill the material, which is now more commonly called the body slip, is stored in holding tanks which contain large paddles that keep the slip in a suspended state. These holding tanks can hold four ball mills worth of material.

Interceramic Ceramic Tile
From the storage tanks, the body slip is then pumped into the spray dryer. The burner in the dryer generates rapidly moving hot air which evaporates the moisture from the body slip. This creates fine particles of clay with a hole in the center. These particles are of various sizes and are controlled as they are formed in the evaporation process and travel through the burner. The granulation size is such that if a bucket were poured, it would flow like water. At this point, it is commonly called the powder.

American Olean
It’s your environment. And it’s up to you to make it your own. At American Olean, we’ve made it easy to do just that. We’ve divided our product line into four distinct categories, each with a look and style all its own.