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An Optimum Firing Schedule of a Standardized

Bone-china Ware
a a
Gautam Ghosh & B. N. Samaddar
a
College of Ceramic Technology Calcutta-700 010
Published online: 06 May 2014.

To cite this article: Gautam Ghosh & B. N. Samaddar (1988) An Optimum Firing Schedule of a Standardized Bone-china
Ware, Transactions of the Indian Ceramic Society, 47:1, 16-19, DOI: 10.1080/0371750X.1988.10822875

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0371750X.1988.10822875

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 An Optimum Firing Schedule of a Standardized
Bone-china Ware
GAUTAM GHOSH AND B. N. SAMADDAR

College of Ceramic Technology

Calcutta-700 010

From an analysis of translucency vs. soaking time data at different
temperatures and translucency-temperature curves for different
soaking times in case of a standardized bone-china body, an
"optimum" value of the translucency has been suggested by taking
into consideration the conditions of bloating. It is suggested that the
curves showing translucency vs. temperature at various times of
soaking can be utilized for quality control for almost any standard
bone-china body with minor adjustments.
Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 04:30 17 August 2015
given bone-china ware. An attempt has been made in
the present paper to use this relationship for an accept-
able value of translucency to decide upon an optimum
firing schedule for a standardized bone-china body.
The result reported in this paper involved unglazed
bone-china body. However, for glazed bodies the result
would not be substantially affected (Table I).

Introduction
Bone-china wares are the most popular among the
quality crockery products for their whiteness and trans-
lucency, and the scope they offer for varieties of deco-
ration. The aesthetic quality of bone-china depends
mainly on its translucency and whiteness. The tFanslu-
cency is dependent on the thickness of the wares, 1 • 2 as
also on the amount of glass formed during firing. 3
The change of translucency as a function of thickness
at different firing temperatures and soaking times has
already been reported1 by the present authors; the
translucency did not show a significant variation with
thickness at any given firing temperature fop any given
soaking time. The sample thickness ranged from about
1.1 mm to about 2.2 mm. For this range of thickness,
the relationship of translucency with firing temperatme
and soaking time was expected to throw light on the
quality control aspects in terms of a firing schedule of a
Experimental
The standardized composition of the bone-china ware
was as follows: China clay (Rajmahal) 38 %, felspar
17 %, bone ash 40% and quartz 5 %. The analyses of
the raw materials used have already been reported. 1
Square plates of length 2.5 em were cast, dried and
fired in a muffle furnace (± I oq between II50° and
1250°C for 20-400 mins of soaking.
The composition of the glaze used was as follows:
Frit mixture-red lead 23 %, borax I9 %, quartz 26 %,
whiting 9 %, felspal' 23 %. Mill mixture-frit 84 %,
felspa11 9%, kaolin (China clay) 7%.
The translucency was measlll'ed in a standard trans-
lucency meter reported earlier. 1 The meter used was
calibrated between I 00% transmission when there was
no sample in the sample holder (i.e. air) and zero trans-
mission when the light source was completely blocked.

Table I: Translucency of both biscuit and glazed bodies for a biscuit firing at 1250' C
(Glost firing, 1050°C)

Soaking time, 20 mins Soaking time, 50 mins Soaking time, 100 ruins

Biscuit body Glazed body Biscuit body Glazed body Biscuit body Glazed body
------
Thick- Translu- Thick- Translu- Thick- Translu- Thick- Translu- Thick- Translu- Thick- Translu-
ness cency ness cency ness cency ness cency ness cency ness cency
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)

1.10 3.20 1.36 3.10 1.11 9.50 1.34 9.50 1.10 11.90 1.33 11.90
1.52 2.90 1.79 2.90 1.50 9.30 1.76 9.30 1.54 11.80 1.77 11.80
1.68 2.90 1.90 2.80 1.66 9.30 1.94 9.20 1.62 11.80 1.85 11.70
1.78 2.80 2.14 2.70 1.70 9.20 2.00 9.10 1.78 11.70 2.01 11.70
1.86 2.80 2.26 2.60 1.84 9.20 2.16 9.10 1.88 11.70 2.11 11.70
2.18 2.60 2.64 2.40 2.18 9.00 2.52 8.90 2.19 11.60 2.42 11.60
-----------------------------------------------------·----~-

16 Transactions of the Indian Ceramic Society

 The % transmission of bone-china samples, made to
size so as to fit the sample holder of the instrument,
has been actually measured; the data for only the
thinnest and thickest samples have been presented. Such
transmission data have been taken to represent the "%
translucency" of the samples in this work.
Results and Discussion
Translucency vs. soaking time: As has been mentioned
at the outset, the variation of translucency with thickness
was rather small for the above range of thickness. The
effect of soaking time on translucency is presented in
Figs. I and 2 at four different temperatures of firing.
For the sake of clarity, out of the many samples ex-
amined only the data for the thickest and thinnest
samples at each soaking time are presented. The range
of thickness of samples varied from 1.1 to 2.2 mm.
It is seen from Fig. 1 that at 1150° and at 1200°C, the
value of translucency went up linearly with increasing
Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 04:30 17 August 2015
value at higher time of soaking at 1200°C. However,
the level of translucency for a given soaking time was
increased with higher temperatures.
At higher temperatures of firing, i.e. 1225° and
1250°C, rate of increase of the translucency with soak-
ing time showed a very distinct feature. For these two
temper-atures, the rate of increase of translucency conti-
nuously decreased with increasing soaking time, and
finally it tended to stabilize at a limiting value. The
initial rate of increase of the translucency was also
faster at higher. temperatures.
Since the plots are shown for both the thickest and
thinnest samples and since the tr-anslucency linearly
decreased with thickness within the range of 1-2 mm,
as reported earlier1 the above discussion is valid for any
thickness within this range. In fact, the change of thick-
ness did not alter the character of the translucency vs.
soaking time curves. Moreover, the diffeience of translu-
cency between the thickest and the thinnest samples at

soaking time. However, the rate of increase of the

translucency with soaking time was slightly different in
the two cases. Both at 1150° and 1200°C, the translu-
cency increased smoothly up to 200 mins; then there was
a change of slope and it increased more rapidly up to
300 mins. While it still increased rapidly up to 400 mins
at 1150°C, this rate was relatively less rapid at 1200°C.
In fact, the translucency tended to stabilize at a limiting
any given soaking time at each temperature was
marginal.
Translucency vs. firing temperature: The relation be-
tween translucency and firing temperature was found to
be very significant. A clear idea of this can be obtained
when the translucency is plotted against temperature at
different soaking times, as shown in Fig. 3. These data

9 14

7 12- BISCUIT

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$ 1150'C

0 _ THINNEST(... \ I mm)
2 0 - THICKEST("'2.1 mm I
THINNESTc-vl.l mm l 2
THICKESH"2.1 mm l

1 ._----~------~----~~----~-----
0 100 200 300 400 100 200 300 400
Soaking time (min)
Fig. 1-Translucency vs. soaking time at different temperatures.

Vol. 47 (1) January-February 1988 17

 15 16

13 14 -

" 12

10

1250'C
6
Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 04:30 17 August 2015

0 - THINNEST (,,,J,Imm)
3 0- THINNEST(,.!. I mm) 4 0- THICKEST IN2,2mm)
0- THJCKEST[N2.1mm)

2 ~~--~----~------L------L------
0 50 100 150 200
Soaking time (min)
Fig. 2-Translucency vs. soaking time at different temperatures.

16 refer to the thinnest samples (of the order of about

200mln 1.1 mm).
For a soaking time of 20 mins the translucency slowly
14 increased from 1200° to 1250°C. For both 100 and 200
BLOATED ZONE
. --·....i-~-
I - - - , ,.coo min - , -
mins of soaking, the translucency increased slowly up
to 1200°C, followed by a very rapid increase at 1225°,
I
12 NON·BLOA TEO
ZONE I
I 300ml / " after which there was again a slow increase, showing a
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kind of saturation towards 1250°C. A very similar

I I
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5o min
10
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I feature was also noted for 50 mins of soaking. Since no
I
sample was prepared at 1150° with 50 mins' soak, the
gCl)
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translucency has been assumed to follow the dotted

C) I I
::I
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line between 1150° and 1200°C. As shown in Fig. 3, it is
=
c<l likely from the behaviour of other samples at 1150°C
E!:: that the translucency for this soaking time would be
negligible. Therefore, for 50, 100 and 200 mins of
soaking, the translucency-temperature curves are typi-
cally S-shaped.
The data for 300 mins and 400 mins of soaking have
been obtained only for 1150° and 1200°C (Fig. 2). It is
seen that between 1150° and 1200°C, there was relatively
rapid increase of the translucency both at 300 mins and
400 mins soaking. Such a high time of soaking could
not be employed for higher temperatures (i.e. at 1225°
1200 1250
and at 1250°C) because of the possibility of bloating.
Temperature ("C) Quality control: It should be mentioned here that out
Fig. 3-Translucency vs. temperature at different of a total of 18 samples (the thinnest ones) studied at
soaking times. four different temperatures, three samples were bloated

18 Transactions of the Indian Ceramic Society

 to some extent, i.e. the samples fired at 1200°C for 400
mins, at 1225° for 200 mins and at 1250°C for 200 mins
of soaking. Among these samples, the first one had the
lowest value of translucency (13 /~). The value of the
translucency for the next sample, which was fired at
1250° with 100 mins of soaking without being bloated
was 11.90%.
Between these two values, i.e. at 12.5% translucency,
a line has been drawn (Fig. 3) to distinguish the bloated
and non-bloated samples for this bone-china composi-
tion in this temperature range of firing (i.e. I 150°-
12500C). For 20 mins of soaking, the translucency value
was very low at all the temperatures, and therefore this
soaking time was not acceptable. For 50 mins' soaking
it was found by extrapolation that a temperature of
1297°C might be used in order to obtain a translucency
value of I 2.5 %. At such a high temperature, there was
again a risk of bloating and warpage of the body due
to the formation of excessive liquid phase if the soaking
Downloaded by [UNSW Library] at 04:30 17 August 2015
time was exceeded during firing. Besides, a margin of
safety of the temperature range was to be maintained,
considering the possibility of temperature variation in
most furnaces.
For 100 mins' soaking, by extrapolating the curve
(Fig. 3) up to 12.5% translucency, it was found that
this limiting translucency value could be obtained if the
firing temperature was extrapolated up to 1264°C. Since
no sample was made at this temperature for I 00 mins'
soaking to see if there was any bloating, it can be safely
assumed on the basis of available experimental results
that the maximum firing temperature for this bone-
china composition should be 1250°C fo1• a soaking time
of I 00 mins for obtaining a value of translucency of
about 12%- For 200 mins' soaking, a lower firing tem-
perature of I 221 oc could be used without bloating, in
order to obtain a translucency value of 12.5 %. For 300
mins' soaking, a maximum firing temperature of 1210°C
<:ould be used without bloating, in order to get a kind
of limiting translucency of 12.5 %. For 400 mins' soak-
ing, however, it may be suggested that the maximum
firing temperature should be about 1196°C for obtain-
ing a translucency of 12.5% without bloating.
For the actual firing procedure. it may be mentioned
that high temperature firing with short soaking time
was the most desirable from the point of view of con-
servation of fuel. The limit, of course, was the risk of
bloating and variation of temperature in the different
parts of the furnace.
[MS received March 20, 1987; revised copy received January 8, 1988]
Vol. 47 (1) January-February 1988
Therefore, Fig. 3 can be referred to as a "quality
control guide" for this particular bone-china composi-
tion in order to decide upon the range of firing tempera-
ture, by taking into consideration the temperature vari-
ation in the furnace, with the objective of attaining the
highest firing temperature and lowest soaking time.
Once the level of translucency could be set as a target,
an appropriate soaking time and temperatm e of firing
could be chosen.
It appears from the above discussion that a firing
schedule may be prescribed for bone-china manufactuPe
on the basis of this result. The level of translucency may
be set at 12.5%. The temperature range may be 1200°-
12500C. Soaking time is to be chosen in the range of a
minimum of 2 hrs at 1250°C to six and a half hours at
1200°C. The constraints of manufacturing conditions,
e.g. the type of furnace used, the type of fuel etc would
dictate the exact time and temperature. The considera-
tion of energy conservation has already been high-
lighted.
Conclusions
Analysing the translucency-soaking time and the
translucency-temperature curves for a given sample
thickness, an optimum value of the translucency is sug-
gested as 12.5% by taking into consideration the pheno-
menon of bloating. FFom this optimum value of the
translucency, a temperature range of 1200°-l250°C and
an app1 opriate soaking time around 2 hrs and above
may be utilized to choose an actual firing schedule for
the production of bone-china waFes with the de~ired
aesthetic appeal. The actual thickness of the ware may
be chosen on the premise that it is desirable to avoid
warpage rather than allowing a little increase of thick-
ness which may not adversely affect the translucency.
Acknowledgement: The authors acknowledge the cooperation
extended by Dr. A. K. Bandyopadhyay of this College in preparing
the manuscript of the paper.
References
I. Ghosh, Gautam and Samaddar, B. N., "A note on translucency
of unglazed bone-china body," Trans. Ind. Ceram. Soc., 43 (5)
132-34 (1984).
2. Ratcliffe, S. W. and German, W. L., p. 212 in Ceramics: A
Symposium, Eds. A. T. Green and G. H. Stewart, British
Ceramic Society, Stoke-on-Trent (1953).
3. Dinsdale, A., Science of Ceramics, Vol. 3, pp. 323-33, Editor-
in-Chief, G. H. Stewart, Academic Press, London and New
York (1967).
19