Learning About Basic Manufacturing

Posted on: 19 June 2018

Stoneware is the term applied to pottery that is fired at a very high temperature. It is most commonly used for producing plates, bowls, and mugs. People buy entire sets with matching patterns and use it for everyday table use. Stoneware may be produced by artists and artisans, but it is more often mass-produced in factories. If you have such a factory, it is vital that you utilize excellent air filtration products and practices. Here is why.

Wet Clay and Dry Silicates

Any stoneware that is fired in a kiln (i.e., a giant, super-hot oven) is created from wet clay. Wet clay is made from bags of dry clay. All clay and all fired pottery contain silicates. Silicates, when inhaled, scar and damage lung tissue, making it impossible for people to breath. It can lead to cancer, as well, if the silicosis does not kill you first.

Granted, you probably require that all of your employees wear NiOSH respirators while they are working in the factory, but the respirators do not remove silicates from clothing. Dusting clay power, dried wet clay, and fired clay dust from your clothes provides more opportunities for silicates to be inhaled. For this reason, it is vital to have excellent air filtration on the work floor, in a decontamination room, and even in a break room in the factory.

Keeping Dust off of the Machinery and out of Rooms

When stoneware is not produced by human hands, the task falls to special machines that form the clay or slurry in a mold. The kilns fire the stoneware after a lengthy drying out or curing process. This often leaves behind, and attracts, a lot of dust. Air filtration systems in the curing rooms and in/around the machinery removes a lot of the dust regularly. The result is cleaner work rooms and cleaner machinery that take less time for your cleaning crews to clean.

The Kilns Must "Breathe" Too

Kilns become exceedingly hot in factory settings. They are designed to manage the heat, but they must also "breathe," or expel some of that heat. Some particulates may escape with the expunged heat.

Many states require that, for a kiln to be properly ventilated, you must have the right type of air filtration system, or you cannot own and operate kilns. In factory settings, your factory is not excluded from these laws and restrictions because you are a factory. Your air filtration system must be inspected regularly to make sure your kilns are not ventilating dangerous particulates into the air, ground, or water.

For more information, contact a company like Kruman Equipment Company.