Methods for measuring temperature and gas gradients in periodic furnaces in a series of Gzhel' enterprises producing artistic porcelain are examined. It is noted that the author's method for mapping periodic furnaces makes it possible to determine the temperature and gas gradients in the charge volume of furnaces. Samples of porcelain paste, colored with iron and manganese, and temperature monitoring rings were used. It is recommended that ALSITHERM refractory fiber be use for lining in order to obtain a more uniform temperature distribution in the working zone.The experience gained from many year of operating periodic furnaces (PFs) whose purpose is to fire porcelain shows that temperature and gas gradients exist over the charge volume of a furnace, and affect the quality of the ready articles and the firing time. The temperature and gas gradients in furnaces are due to numerous factors: structural imperfections, imprecise regulation of the burners, use of high heat-capacity refractory materials during furnace assembly and operation, as well as nonconformance to the modern requirements of instruments for monitoring and regulating the state of the gas inside a furnace. Temperature differentials and the firing time depend directly on the live section of the working zone of a furnace. The larger the useful cross section of a furnace and the higher the charge, the larger the temperature differentials over the height of the charge, the longer the cycle, and lower the firing quality are [1].In a number of enterprises in Gzhel' [2, 3], a rapid method was proposed for monitoring the structure of the fired ceramic which made it possible to determine the presence of a temperature differential and heterogeneity of the gas medium by means of EPR-NMR spectroscopy and precision magnetic measurements.Rapid analysis of the structure of fired porcelain samples showed that in PFs there arise substantial high-gradient regions between the bottom and top of the charge, and in addition there are so-called dead zones where the gas composition is nonuniform -either weakly reducing or oxidative, which was characterized by the color and structural nonuniformity of the porcelain samples.The temperature nonuniformity was especially large at the door of a PF and at the top of trolleys. On the whole the method used made it possible, to a certain extent, to adjust the temperature and gas regimes of glost firing in order to improve the quality of the porcelain decorated with cobalt subglaze paints.Since the temperature during firing of porcelain was monitored by fusion cones (FCs) and thermocouples, which had a definite error, and the composition of the gas medium was quite difficult to monitor instrumentally because of a lack of stationary sensors for analyzing the gas inside the furnace, it was impossible to eliminate the temperature and gas gradients completely.Attempts to upgrade PFs to decrease their energy intensiveness and the temperature gradient and to eliminate dead temperature and gas zones were undertaken at the Gzhel' plant "Élekt...
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