Course Name: Whitewares

Course No: GCE3225

Class Conducted By:

Md. Mintu Ali
Assistant Professor, Dept. of GCE, RUET
Rajshahi-6204
Email: min2.gce11ruet@gmail.com
Why is pressure so important?

In tunnel kilns, changing the kiln

pressure is probably the fastest way
to modify the firing and cooling
characteristics of the entire kiln.
Clients frequently ask me about the
"correct" pressure for their tunnel
kiln-without fully understanding the
importance of kiln design, sensor
location and sensor elevation.
Figure 1. Kiln pressure is relatively negative within a few
feet of the entrance of the kiln and then gradually rises.
Pressure controls the primary and
fundamental airflow within the tunnel kiln.
It has a dramatic influence on temperature
uniformity, soaking time and energy
consumption. Measurement and control of
pressure is imperative to maintaining
consistently good firing characteristics.

Figure 1. Kiln pressure is relatively negative within a few

feet of the entrance of the kiln and then gradually rises.
Basic Pressure Characteristics

Pressure within a tunnel kiln varies

along its length, and is elevation- and
temperature-dependent. Pressure is
important because it influences airflow
direction within the kiln and affects air
infiltration and outflow. Airflow
direction is always from positive to less
positive, and it is important to remember
that kiln pressure is measured relative to Figure 1. Kiln pressure is relatively negative within a few
the air pressure outside of the kiln. feet of the entrance of the kiln and then gradually rises.
In Figure 1, it is evident that the kiln pressure is
relatively negative within a few feet of the entrance
of the kiln and then gradually rises; the pressure
becomes positive through the firing and cooling
zones, and is "neutral" at the kiln exit. As
previously stated, this pressure curve is only
relative to the pressure in the room where the kiln
is located. In fact, there is no negative pressure-
only more positive or less positive areas. The
absolute pressure within the kiln actually varies
hour by hour with normal barometric changes in
the atmosphere. Under proper control conditions, Figure 1. Kiln pressure is relatively negative
however, the relative pressure within the kiln stays within a few feet of the entrance of the kiln and
then gradually rises.
the same.
Finding a Balance

Once the basic concept is understood, how do you adjust the kiln pressure to
provide the proper balance between temperature uniformity, temperature
control, kiln car overheating and energy consumption? The first step is to
develop a set of readings on your tunnel kiln. Select a manometer with
sufficient sensitivity-0.001 in. resolution-so you can develop an internal
pressure curve of the kiln. Try to measure the pressure in the kiln every 20 ft,
and measure the pressure at the same elevation (preferably close to the kiln car
base).
At the same time, measure the oxygen level at each of these locations, as this
supplemental data will be quite useful as we begin the analysis of changes that
must be made. This data can be used to help improve the operational
characteristics of the kiln.
Because pressure controls the primary and fundamental airflow within the tunnel
kiln, it has a dramatic influence on temperature uniformity, soaking time, and
energy consumption. Measurement and control of pressure is imperative to
maintain consistently good firing characteristics. Adjustment of the kiln pressure
curve must take into account the whole kiln-not just one position. When changing
any input or exhaust, whether it is cooling or heating, it is necessary to consider
the impact and make the appropriate balance adjustments.
Taking Measurements
Management of the kiln pressure profile
The first step in managing kiln pressure is makes a huge difference in kiln stability.
to develop a set of readings on your tunnel
kiln. Select a manometer with sufficient
sensitivity—0.001 in. resolution—so you
can develop an internal pressure curve of
the kiln. Try to measure the pressure in the
kiln every 20 ft, and always measure the
pressure at the same elevation (preferably
close to the kiln car base). At the same time,
measure the oxygen level at each of these
locations; this supplemental data will be Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be adjusted
useful when analyzing necessary changes. (black) to improve firing.
Figure 1 shows several pressure curves of tunnel kilns.
The red curve represents kiln pressure before
adjustment, and the blue curve is the percentage of O2.
The black curve represents pressure after the kiln was
adjusted, while the green curve is the corresponding
percentage of O2.

The red pressure curve has some anomalies. The kiln is

too negative in general, and as a result, suction of cold
air into the kiln is prevalent for nearly all of the heating
cycle, which wastes energy and affects temperature
uniformity. In addition, the kiln pressure is barely
positive in the hottest zones, which likely affects energy
Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be adjusted
and the ultimate uniformity of temperature.
(black) to improve firing.
Finally, the pressure in the cooling zone is
less than the pressure in the hot zone. This
means that hot gases are being sucked into
the cooling zone. This causes a number of
undesirable effects, including loss of
energy, an additional burden on cooling,
and the exhaustion of combustion
byproducts into the cooling zone (where
they will affect products being dried by
waste heat). Note the oxygen curve displays
depressed O2 levels in the cooling zone—a
further indication of reverse flow or Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be adjusted
“backdrafting.” (black) to improve firing.
Making Adjustments

Fixing the curve in Figure 1 requires the adjustment of

both the main exhaust system and the cooling exhaust
system. First, the cooling exhaust should be reduced to
raise the pressure within the cooling zone so that it
exceeds the pressure in the hot zone. Next, the products
of combustion fan suction should be reduced to shift
the overall pressure curve upward. These steps will
raise the kiln pressure and eliminate the flow of hot Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be
zone gases into the cooling zone. Because these adjusted (black) to improve firing.
adjustments are interdependent, they will have to be
repeated a few times to attain the proper results.
The black curve in Figure 1 is much better than the prior
example. The kiln pressure rises progressively from the
entry to the exit, indicating proper flow of gases down the
tunnel. It is confirmed by the oxygen curve, which shows
the typical decrease in oxygen in the heating zone,
followed by an immediate rise after the hot zone.

An area of concern would be the relatively high pressures

in the hot zone and cooling. Typically, the hot zone
pressure (measured at the kiln car base) should be in the
Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be
range of +.01 to + .02 in. WC. When pressures are higher,
adjusted (black) to improve firing.
you’ll usually find that excessive leakage of hot gases from
the kiln are penetrating the car-to-car interfaces and
overheating the car running gear. 
If this were the case in this example, additional
exhaust in both the cooling zone and the
products of combustion fan would be indicated,
reducing the pressures throughout the kiln.

When airflows within a tunnel kiln are out of

balance, energy usage always increases and
temperature uniformity is poorer than it should
be. Managing kiln pressure and oxygen curves Pressure curve anomalies (red) can be
adjusted (black) to improve firing.
will tell you a lot about internal airflow and is
the first step in correcting pressure anomalies.
Different Types of Kilns
Ceramic kilns passed through different stages of development, from the earliest forms of scove
and chamber, to which recuperative systems were later added, through shuttle kilns, to modern
tunnel kilns and rail, roller, and slab (movement of wares) kilns. Manufacture of kilns suited to
particular types of ceramic wares has now become a specialized branch of the industry and
numerous firms throughout the world are engaged in kiln manufacture as well as carrying out
researches on improvement in fuel efficiency, firing time reduction, better control of product
quality, and control efficiency.
Since various books and extensive literature are available on the subject, only a concise
discussion will be made in the following paragraphs. Kilns used in the ceramic industry can be
divided into three main categories: intermittent or periodic; rotary; and continuous or tunnel
type.
INTERMITTENT OR PERIODIC KILNS
Down-draft kiln
The most important and common type of intermittent or periodic kiln is the down-draft kiln.
In India it is by far the most popular kiln for small and medium-scale ceramic units. In this
kiln the three parts-furnace or fire-place, heating chamber, and chimney or stack -can be
distinctly identified (Fig. 11.10).
The fuel used is coal. The desired quality of coal is low-ash and low- sulphur. The common
form of the chamber looks like a beehive with a circular cross-section. The base diameter of the
chamber varies from 8 ftto 36 ft and the height from 10 ft to 20 ft. The rate of heating is mostly
controlled by the feeding rate of the coal and adjustment of the damper.
The heating starts only after the wares are loaded and set in the chamber in saggers. The fired
wares are taken out only when the kiln has cooled down to a tolerable temperature.

Depending on the kiln diameter, multiple fire boxes

are arranged around the circumference for even
distribution of heat. The charging of coal in the fire
boxes, usually done manually, is done in a planned
manner to keep the rise and fall of temperature to a
minimum. For bigger kilns automatic feeding and
stoking of coal prove economical.
Down-draft kilns have a very low thermal efficiency as a good part of the heat, about 30% or
more, is used up in heating the furnace structure and the kiln furniture (saggers) and an equally
good part is wasted in the flue gases besides the heat losses from the kiln structure by
convection and radiation. It has been estimated that the wares in such a kiln constitute only 3-
8% by weight of the total weight capacity of the kiln.

Besides, the original advantage of such kilns in

using a cheap fuel, coal, has eroded considerably
with steep rise in coal cost and degradation in its
quality. The firing cost in such kilns now accounts
for 35-40% of the total cost.
Some suggestions that have been made to improve the efficiency of down-draft kilns and reduce the
cost of firing are:
(a) Insulation of the foundation and side walls.
(b) Use of low thermal mass refractories for kiln construction (e.g., hollow- blocks, insulation-filled
blocks).
(c) Reducing the height (to shoulder height) as compared to the diameter, for example, height 8-10 ft for
diameter 10-20 ft.
(d) Bag walls shortened, thinned, and perforated at the sides away from the direct inlet combustion gases.
(e) Making arrangement for supplying hot secondary air over the glowing fuel bed. This hot air may be
drawn from the flue gases.
(f) Use of better quality saggers with thinner walls. Materials like cordierite, cordierite-mullite, and
corundum-clay mixtures have reportedly been tried out to give two to five times more cycles of firing.
Shuttle kiln
The shuttle kiln is a rectangular chamber in
which a car or a trolley running on rails
(sometimes two) laden with wares, is pushed in
for firing and then taken out for unloading on
cooling. Often one car shuttles in and out. More
often, one loaded car goes in while another waits
outside for loading. Shuttle kilns are mostly fired
by oil (Fig. 11.11) or gas and some are
electrically heated, particularly those meant for
glaze or decoration. Those fired by oil or gas are
either down-draft or horizontal draft kilns (Fig.
11.11).The shuttle kilns are more thin-walled than
the other down-draft kilns.
The shuttle kilns are normally of low filling
capacity but the heat distribution is more
uniform and the temperature can be raised quite
high. This type of kiln is therefore used for
firing high value wares or high temperature
maturing wares like alumina ceramics or zircon
ceramics. In India some such kilns are being
successfully used in the small- and medium-
scale sanitary ware industries as well as in the
manufacture of high tension insulators (Fig.
11.12).
Elevator kiln
As the name implies, in the elevator kiln, either the
kiln as a structural whole is moved up and down
while the car with set wares sits underneath or the
kiln remains stationary at a high position and the
loaded cars are raised up to be covered by the kiln.
Since the kiln structure sits on top of the cars,
elevator kilns are often called top-hat kilns. These
kilns have the same working characteristics as
shuttle kilns and at one time were in vogue in the
United States and in Europe. Some improved types
are now used for special products.
ROTARY KILN
Due to its very limited use, only a brief mention of the rotary kiln is necessary. This kiln, similar to a
cement kiln, is used for calcining bulk quantities of materials like china clay, hydrated alumina, kyanite,
zircon, sillimanite, and sometimes talc.

Principle of operation
The kiln is a cylindrical vessel, inclined
slightly from the horizontal, which is rotated
slowly about its longitudinal axis. The
process feedstock is fed into the upper end of
the cylinder. As the kiln rotates, material
gradually moves down toward the lower end,
and may undergo a certain amount of stirring
and mixing.
Hot gases pass along the kiln, sometimes in the same direction as the process material
(co-current), but usually in the opposite direction (counter-current). The hot gases may be
generated in an external furnace, or may be generated by a flame inside the kiln. Such a
flame is projected from a burner-pipe (or "firing pipe") which acts like a large bunsen
burner. The fuel for this may be gas, oil, pulverized petroleum coke or pulverized coal.
CONTINUOUS OR TUNNEL KILN
Tunnel-shaped, continuous firing kilns are made in different cross-sections (rectangular) and length
depending on the type of product and the quantity of production. They are usually straight and
horizontal but may also be circular as in the case of some decorating kilns. They have five functionary
parts: source of heat, arrangement for circulation of heat, car or base for the ware, movement of the
ware, and kiln enclosure.
Source of heat
The fuels for firing of tunnel kilns may be oil or gas (or electricity) and are fed through
burners placed in the middle portion, or heating zone, of the kiln often staggered on both
sides. The oil burners are provided with atomisers by compressed air: Oil-fired tunnels are
mostly muffled to avoid the contaminating effects from direct contact of the flames or hot
gases.

The muffles, however account for some heat loss as the wares are then indirectly heated
by radiation and convection rather than directly heated by combustion gases as can be
done with pure gas (natural gas) burners. The heat supply to a muffle kiln needs to be
increased about one-and-a-half times of that supplied to a direct-fired kiln to achieve the
same firing objective (3500 Btu/lb increasing to about 5500 Btu/lb has been quoted as an
example).
Source of heat
Low-pressure gas burners are common for the purer gases. By far the best gas fuel is natural
gas, which not only has the highest calorific value but also is comparatively free from
contaminants. Other gases used in firing tunnel kilns are, in order of their decreasing
calorific values, liquefied petroleum gas, coke oven gas, producer gas, and city gas.
Most of the high temperature furnaces (above 1500.C) are fired by gas and preheated air. A
temperature of 1800 C can be reached if the air is enriched with oxygen. Electrically heated
tunnels are commonly used for glazing and decoration. The coiled kanthal elements are
fitted inside in grooves in the refractory linings. SiC or carborundum elements as rods
protruding inside are used for higher temperatures.
Arrangement for circulation
of hot gases
Norton (1970) has given a
schematic picture of a typical
open-fire tunnel kiln showing
the movement of gases, the static
pressure, and the tempera- ture
of the ware along the length of
the kiln. Some of the essential
features are described below and
shown in Fig. 11.13.
The blowers placed at different positions maintain the
circulation of hot gases inside the kiln, feed hot
secondary air to the burners, and supply heated
exhaust gases to the drier. They help maintain the
constancy of temperature at particular points. It is
only the car tops carrying the wares that undergo the
gradual change in temperature when they travel
through the kiln as shown in Fig. 11.13c.
Air locks are provided at both ends to prevent any
leakage during entry or exit of the cars as well as to
maintain the desired static pressure schedule. Kiln
builders use various designs for efficient working and
heat distribution of the kilns with maximum fuel
efficiency.
Car or base for the ware
The cars with wheels run on rails. This lower portion is protected from hot gases by a sand
seal, a seal made by an iron apron, attached to each side of the car, running through sand-
filled troughs built along both sides of the kiln walls throughout the length of the kiln. The
car tops which carry the wares are subjected to heating and cooling as they run along the
furnace and have therefore to be built very carefully, usually in several layers.
An insulation layer at the bottom protects the bottom metal parts. The middle layer is made
of high refractory, load-bearing, thermally stable refractory bricks or blocks. For the top,
special blocks or castables are preferred. Nowadays attempts are being made to reduce the
cumbersome thickness of the car top by using different combinations and designs of
refractory bricks, blocks, and monoliths.
Movement of the ware

In an ordinary tunnel kiln, pusher bars (manual or

hydraulic) are used to push cars in and out of the kin, one
at a time. This, being an intermittent process, disturbs the
smoothness of the time-temperature schedule.
Continuous movement of cars is now incorporated in
many kilns. Fig. 11.14 shows the picture of an
indigenously built rapid fire tunnel kiln.

In kilns with smaller cross-section, other ingenious

devices for movement of wares along with some change
in furnace design have been successfully used for rapid
and uniform firing of the wares, particularly tiles. Instead
of cars the wares are placed on refractory slabs which are
then pushed through on a smooth refractory base.
This type of kiln is often called 'slab kiln'. In
the 'roller hearth kiln', the tiles or slabs
carrying wares pass over rollers through the
kiln. The rollers for preheat and cooling zones
can be of heat-resistant metals but hot zone
rollers are made of high temperature ceramic
materials like alumina ceramics.
Such kilns are now fast becoming a common
feature of not only tile manufacturing units but
also of units manufacturing tablewares and
sanitarywares especially for their low energy
consumption and fast rate of production.
The kiln enclosure
The modern trend in building a kiln is to reduce the thickness of the refractory linings (walls,
ceiling, etc.) as much as possible, i.e. to reduce the thermal mass to reduce the load factors, and to
reduce loss of heat. Hot face insulation as well as back-up insulation like ceramic wools, mats,
and blocks are now widely used instead of the massive structures used earlier.

Advantages
The advantages of tunnel kilns over the periodic kilns in firing of ceramic wares can be summarised
as follows:
(a) The temperature at any particular position in the kiln can be maintained within very close limits,
less than + 2"C. Therefore, the time of heating or time of passing through the point can be well
regulated.
Advantages
(b) The heat recovery through recuperation by proper air circulation is quite high. The cooling air
is heated up by wares and then goes to preheat the oil or combustion gases. Part of the waste heat
(gases) is also used in driers.
(c) Fuel economy is two to three times greater. One-half to one-third of the fuel used in periodic
kilns is good enough to serve the same purpose in tunnel kilns.
(d) Tunnel kilns are labour saving and highly amenable to mechanisation.
(e) Much less kiln furniture is needed and the kiln can be designed to suit quicker firing schedule
(e.g., small cross-section kiln, multipassage kilns).
(f) Except for car tops the refractories used do not have to undergo any thermal shock and have
good life as, set at particular positions, they have only to withstand those particular temperatures.
Only the car tops need frequent attendance.
The use of tunnel kilns, however, is restricted to the extent that they need large
investment, occupy a lot of space, and have to be continuously fed, needing thereby a
large production.

Special kilns
As mentioned earlier, smaller cross-section, like 24 x 24 in or 24 x 32 in., with various
modes of firing, i.e. placing of burners, is now becoming more in vogue commensurate
with fast-firing technology. Some tile kilns meant for firing flatwares, are fired from top
and bottom to get more efficient fast firing. Similarly, 'multipassage kilns' and 'counter
flow passage kilns' where wares on bats flow in opposite directions in adjacent passages
have shown very good thermal efficiency.