Used in the ceramic tile market as a representative building material, relief ceramic tile is showing increased demand recently. Since ceramic tiles are manufactured through a sintering process at over 1,000 oC after uniaxial compression molding by loading granule powders into a mold, it is very important to secure the flowability of granular powders in a mold having a relief pattern. In this study, kaolin, silica, and feldspar are used as starting materials to prepare granule powders by a spray dryer process; the surface of the granule powders is subject to hydrophobic treatment with various concentrations of stearic acid. The effect on the flowability of the granular powder according to the change of stearic acid concentration is confirmed by measuring the angle of repose, tap density, and compressibility, and the occurrence of cracks in the green body produced in the mold with the relief pattern is observed. Then, the green body is sintered by a fast firing process, and the water absorption, flexural strength, and durability are evaluated. The surface treatment of the granule powders with stearic acid improves the flowability of the granule powders, leading to a dense microstructure of the sintered body. Finally, the hydrophobic treatment of the granule powders makes it possible to manufacture relief ceramic tiles having a flexural strength of 292 N/cm, a water absorption of 0.91 %, and excellent mechanical durability

Generally, ceramic tiles for building construction are manufactured by dry forming process using granular powders prepared by spray drying process after mixing and grinding of mineral raw materials. In recent years, as the demand for large ceramic tiles with natural texture has increased, the development of granule powders with high packing ratio and excellent flowability has become more important. In this study, ceramic tile granule powders are coated with hydrophobically treated silica nanoparticles. The effects of hydrophobic silica coating on the flowability of granule powders and the strength of the green body are investigated in detail. Silica nanoparticles are hydrophobically treated with GPTMS(3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxy silane), which is an epoxy-based silane coupling agent. As the coating concentration increases, the angle of repose and the compressibility decrease. The tap density and flowability index increase after silica coating treatment. These results indicate that hydrophobic treatment can improve the flowability of the granular powder, and prevent cracking of green body at high pressure molding.