Digitalfire Firing Schedule Database

Ceramic Firing Schedules

Fast firing is almost universal in most sectors of the ceramic industry now. Companies hire experts to design kilns and firing procedures to successfully handle the type of ware they manufacture. Small potteries, university ceramics programs, potters and hobby potters have periodic kilns and generally do not fast fire. This enables them to use clays and glazes and make ware that would not be practical in fast fire kilns. Often the results that a specific glaze gives are a combination of the recipe, the underlying clay and the firing scedule (and of course kiln atmosphere). This area of the database is intended to capture the firing part of the puzzle. In theory, no glaze should be separated from its firing schedule, especially if it is a reactive glaze.

The format for the data in this area matches the way a typical electronic controller is programmed. Each step can also have a short note (e.g. a caution, an instruction). Since glaze recipes can be linked to firing schedules, it is typical that one schedule will have many recipes linked to it.

See Also

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• Electric Hobby Kilns: Some Recent Advances You Should Not Ignore

  Electric firing is undergoing a renaissance among potters because of changing attitudes and new equipment.

• Body Cracking and Dunting During Firing
  

  Ceramic industry can fire much faster and deal with much heavier objects than potters can, how do they do it. The answer is they pay more attention to...

• Ceramic Glazes Today

  Todd Barson of Ferro Corp. overviews the glaze formulations being using in various ceramics industry sectors. He discusses fast fire, glaze materials, development and trouble shooting.

• Interpreting Orton Cones

  Interpreting how high a kiln fired based on the look of the cones can be a much more complicated matter than it might first appear.