The Book
The Technical Kiln Book by Ralph Ruark
I started at my first job as a graduate ceramic engineer. I had only been on board around 6 months when some changes in people required that I manage the kiln operations. I was suddenly confronted with the operation and control of several large (425 feet long) tunnel kilns, along with a variety of shuttle and other periodic kilns.
Though I didn’t know much (anything) about kilns at that time, I figured that I could readily learn about kilns and kiln operations by reading some of the textbooks that must be available. After all, wasn’t firing the common thread in all of ceramic processes? Just because there were no classes on kilns and kiln control at Rutgers University, surely that didn’t mean that there were no modern textbooks devoted to industrial ceramic kiln operation.
How disappointed I was to find that there was little or no information that I could find, anywhere, that even answered one tenth of my questions. I was in trouble and I knew it.
Fortunately the “old timers” helped me along, and prevented me from doing anything too stupid. They couldn’t always explain why things happened, but they were pretty good at making kiln changes and causing the desired results.
35 years later there still is no kiln compendium that goes much beyond pictures and light technical descriptions. Since the kiln business has been so good to me, here is my best effort to help kiln operations people, young and experienced alike, to continue to improve their operations.
The Technical Kiln Book will be published in June of 2002. It will cover a wide range of material, in a format that has been proven in Ruark Engineering Seminars. The table of contents is as follows:
1. Introduction
2. Kiln Overview
3. Combustion Chemistry
4. Burners and Ratio Control Systems
5. Overview of the Continuous kiln
· Tunnel Kilns–low to moderate temperature
· Tunnel Kilns–high temperature
· Roller Hearth kilns
· Specialty Kilns
6. Specific sections of the kiln
· Entrance
· Preheat
· Hot Zone
· Rapid and Final Cooling
7. Overview of Periodic Kilns
· Bell type
· Shuttle type
· Burner and Combustion Systems
· Incineration and Afterburning
8. Control of pressure
9. Fuel consumption
10. Kiln Operations Management and the Power of Data Acquisition
*We are accepting pre-publishing orders at a 33% discount to the market price of $75.