History and Manufacturing

After careful drying to remove evaporable water, clay-based ceramics undergo gradual heating to remove structural water, to decompose and burn off any organic binders used in forming, and to achieve consolidation of the ware. Batches of specialty products, produced in smaller volumes, are cycled up and down in so-called batch furnaces. Most mass-produced traditional ceramics, on the other hand, are fired in tunnel kilns. These consist of continuous conveyor belt or railcar operations, with the ware traversing the kiln and gradually being heated from room temperature, through a hot zone, and back down to room temperature. Pyrometric cones, which deform and sag at specific temperatures, often ride with the ware to monitor the highest temperature seen in the traverse through the kiln.

The ultimate purpose of firing is to achieve some measure of bonding of the particles (for strength) and consolidation or reduction in porosity (e.g., for impermeability to fluids). In silicate-based ceramics, bonding and consolidation are accomplished by partial vitrification. Vitrification is the formation of glass, accomplished in this case through the melting of crystalline silicate compounds into the amorphous, noncrystalline atomic structure associated with glass. As the formed ware is heated in the kiln, the clay component turns into progressively larger amounts of glass.

The role of the glassy liquid phase in the consolidation of fired clay objects is to facilitate liquid-phase or reactive-liquid sintering. In these processes the liquid first brings about a denser rearrangement of particles by viscous flow. Second, through solution-precipitation of the solid phases, small particles and surfaces of larger particles dissolve and reprecipitate at the growing "necks" that connect large particles.

Rearrangement and solution-precipitation lead to bond formation and to progressive densification with reduction of porosity. A range of glass contents and residual porosities can be obtained, depending on the ingredients and the time the object is held at maximum temperature.
If fired ceramic ware is porous and fluid impermeability is desired, or if a purely decorative finish is desired, the product can be glazed. In glazing, a glass-forming formulation is pulverized and suspended in an appropriate solvent. The fired ceramic body is dipped in or painted with the glazing slurry, and it is refired at a temperature that is lower than its initial firing temperature but high enough to vitrify the glaze formulation. Glazes can be coloured by the addition of specific transition-metal or rare-earth elements to the glaze glass or by the suspension of finely divided ceramic particles in the glaze.