While the structure of Biaxial and Quadraxial blends is the same. The difference lies in the designing of the glazes which occupy the four corners of the blend.

Biaxial or Quadraxial blends are used when you may want to explore:

• changes involving two materials in a recipe e.g. if in the Cone 10 Glaze recipe we wanted to explore the effects resulting from changes to both EPK Kaolin and Silica.
• changes involving four materials in a recipe. This is the most complex of scenarios and perhaps the least used except in the case where the materials are colourants.
• the results of simply blending four different recipes

Matrix offers a number of different sized blends that can be constructed:

• 5 x 7 blend. This is the largest that results in the generation of 35 samples glazes.
• 4 x 5 blend which gives 20 samples and the
• 3 x 4 blend which gives 12 samples.

For a discussion of the special case 5 x 7 biaxial used by Ian Currie for a blend involving Kaolin and Silica material only go to Currie Standard Recipe Grid

A Biaxial Blend for Varying Al2O3 and SiO2 Sources in a Recipe

Matrix offers the opportunity of designing blends which specifically target an area of interest around an original recipe.

If we wanted to fine tune a recipe such as our Cone 10 Glaze recipe by varying the Al2O3 and SiO2 content we could design a focused biaxial of say 20 samples in which the clay and silica material quantities are varied.

Start with the Creation of the Corner C Recipe The process starts by designing the Corner C recipe which will have a small reduction in the clay and silica material content. I have chosen Al2O3 and SiO2 levels which would place the formula for the C recipe at the minimum suggested in the Cone 10 limits tables. To create the corner C recipe: load the original Cone 10 Glaze recipe into the R.1 recipe panel in Recipe to Formula copy the recipe into the R.2 panel and activate the panel open the AlSi Graph reduce the EPK Kaolin and Silica material quantities in the R.2 panel recipe until the red dot showing the Al2O3 and SiO2 formula levels for the new recipe sits approximatly at the corner of the blue rectangle. convert the new recipe to a % (totalling 100) save the new recipe with a name like "Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial C" in a Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial folder created in the Blends folder.

Fig.1 Corner C recipe on the AlSi Graph

Designing the A, B, & D Corner Recipes for the "Cone 10 Glaze" Biaxial Blend

Corner C - is now the Cone 10 Glaze recipe with Al2O3 reduced by around 0.1 mol. and SiO2 reduced by around 0.8 mol. Oxide levels in the flux group have not been changed

We can now create the other three recipes for our biaxial corners using the Corner C recipe as the starting point. Corner A - will be the Corner C recipe with about 0.2 mols. of Al2O3 added to the formula Corner B - will be the Corner A recipe with about 1.5 mols. of SiO2 added to the formula. Corner D - will be the Corner C recipe with about 1.5 mols. of SiO2 added to the formula.

Creating the Corner A Recipe

The corner A recipe can be created in the Recipe to Formula environment by

• placing the new Corner C recipe in the R.1 recipe panel
• copying it into the R.2 recipe panel using the button and activating the R.2 panel
• increasing the EPK Kaolin content of the recipe until the Al2O3 mol value in the formula increases by about 0.2
• convert the new recipe to a % (totalling 100)
• save the new recipe with a name like "Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial A" in the Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial folder

Creating the Corner D Recipe

The corner D recipe can be created in the Recipe to Formula environment by

• placing the new Corner C recipe in the R.1 recipe panel
• copying it into the R.2 recipe panel and activating the R.2 panel
• increasing Silica material content of the recipe until the SiO2 mol value increases by about 0.2
• convert the new recipe to a % (totalling 100)
• save the new recipe with a name like "Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial D" in the Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial folder

Creating the Corner B Recipe

The corner B recipe can be created in the Recipe to Formula environment by

• placing the new Corner A recipe in the R.1 recipe panel
• load the Corner D recipe into the R.2 recipe panel and activating the R.2 panel
• increasing EPK Kaolin content of the recipe until the Al2O3 mol value increases to the same level as the corner A recipe in the R.1 panel.
• convert the new recipe to a % (totalling 100)
• save the new recipe with a name like "Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial B" in the Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial folder

We have now created and stored in a special folder the four coner recipes needed to make the biaxial blend.

Creating the Biaxial Blend

Move to the Blends environment and start the blend-making process by entering the name Cone 10 Glaze Biaxial in the Blend Name text box.

Follow the to the Select the Blend Type and choose the blend type and the number of samples for the triaxial as was done in Making a Triaxial Blend.

Fig.1 Enter the blend name and select the blend type

After making the choices of blend type and sample number (Fig.1) we click on the red corner glaze buttons to point Matrix to the recipes to use in creating the blend. Matrix is now ready to make the blend so click the Make Blend button. Information regarding the blend can now be viewed before saving the worksheet and the recipes. e.g. you might want to check the range of samples on a graph incase it needs to be increased or reduced. Fi.g 2 shows the range of Al2O3 and SiO2 molecular parts represented in each of the recipes in the blend.

Fig.2 The Briaxial blend mapped on the Al:Si graph

The A, B and C and D recipes are located on the graph (Fig.2) and the samples generated by Matrix for the biaxial are distributed betweeen these corners. The blue limits rectangle for C.10 in the background shows how the blend recipes we have designed and created relate to the recommended range for C.10 The blend worksheet and recipes may now be saved using the buttons in the Save the Blend panel. More ... You will also want to print out the worksheet data so that you can mix the blend. You may also want to obtain a printout of the blend's recipes and formulae using buttons in the Print Blend Data panel.

Physically Making the Blend

To physically making the blend you will need to print the worksheet data.

Click the Worksheet Data button in the Print Blend Data panel to get the printout you need. You can take this printout to your glaze mixing lab and prepare the blend recipes and test tiles for firing.

Assessing the Blend After Firing

After you have fired the blend you will want to refer to the individual recipes representing the glazes on the test tiles.

Click the Blend Recipes button in the Print Blend Data panel to get the printout which includes all recipes and their unity formulae.

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