LIME, MAGNESIA

**Definition:** This place covers:

Chemical aspects of the processing of lime, magnesia or dolomite and of molten slag.

Compositional aspects of:

Physico-chemical aspects of methods for obtaining mortars, concrete, artificial stones or ceramics , e.g. for delaying the setting time of mortar compositions.

Treatment including defibrillating of materials such as fillers , agglomerated or waste materials, or refuse to enhance their filling properties in mortars, concrete or artificial stone.

Porous mortars, concrete, artificial stone or ceramic ware, and the preparation thereof.

Methods and apparatus for:

After- treatment of artificial stones, mortars, concrete and ceramics , e.g. coating or impregnation of green concrete after primary shaping.

Non-mechanical treatment of natural stone.

Processing powders of inorganic compounds in preparation to the manufacturing of ceramic products .

The joining of burned ceramics with other articles by heating.

**Limiting references (this place does not cover):** - Granulating apparatus -> B01J2/00 - Mechanical features relating to the working of mortars, concrete, stone, clay-wares or ceramics , e.g. mixing or shaping ceramic compositions, boring natural stone -> B28 - Chemical preparation of powders of inorganic compounds -> C01 - Devitrified glass-ceramics -> C03C10/00 - Compositions containing free metal bonded to carbides, diamond, oxides, borides, nitrides, silicides, e.g. cermets, or other metal compounds, such as oxynitrides or sulfides, other than as macroscopic reinforcing agents -> C22C - Building elements or constructions; Finishing work on buildings -> E04

**Glossary:** - Active ingredients: Ingredients having an effect on the mortar-, concrete- or artificial stone composition during processing or on the characteristics of the final product, e.g. as set accelerator, as dispersant or as gas generating agent. Other examples are processing aids or property improvers, e.g. grinding aids, used after the cement burning process or in the absence of such a burning process. - Cement: The binder proper, i.e. excluding any additional ingredient or additive added to the finished binder as such, with the exception of mixtures of binders. - Clinker: The unground sintered product leaving the cement kiln. In patent literature this term might be used literally, i.e. to indicate the unground sintered product leaving the cement kiln, or it might be used to indicate the ground cement without any additive, i.e. not interground with additives such as gypsum. - Ceramics: Inorganic, non metallic products obtained by a process involving a shaping step and a sintering or comparable heat treatment step, with the exclusion of cements , cermets and glasses, glazes, vitreous enamels and devitrified glass ceramics. - Fillers: Inactive ingredients, include pigments, aggregates and fibrous reinforcing materials. - Fine ceramics: Ceramics having a polycrystalline fine-grained microstructure, e.g. of dimensions below 100 micrometer. - Hydraulic binder: For the purpose of classification and search in this subclass, the terms " cement " and " hydraulic binder " are considered to be equivalent, even if in literature, an hydraulic binder might be defined as a mixture of cement and one or more inorganic additives. - Mortar- , concrete- and artificial stone compositions: They are considered as a single group of materials, are mixtures of one or more binders with fillers or other ingredients. In the context of such compositions, the terms " cement " and "binder" are considered equivalent. - Resin mortar or resin concrete: Mortar or concrete containing resin as a binder instead of cement , i.e. excluding any inorganic binder and containing a considerable amount of inorganic filler compared with the amount of the organic binder. - Refractories: Ceramics or mortars withstanding high temperatures of at least about 1500 degrees C. For classification and search in this subclass no substantial distinction is made between the terms " refractories " and " ceramics ". - Porous materials: Materials which are deliberately made porous, e.g. by adding gas-forming, foaming, burnable or lightweight additives to the composition they are made of.