How Fine China is Made
Other People Are Reading
-
Clay
-
The main raw material for making fine china is porcelain, which is essentially a ceramic material made by heating kaolin and other raw materials to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 Celsius until it becomes clay. Besides ceramic or "china clay," three other raw ingredients go into making fine china, which includes ball clay, flint and feldspar. Stored in tanks, all the raw ingredients are mixed together to form a slurry.
Molding
-
Production molds are used for molding the various table wares. A large metal master mold is used for casting the production mold out of plaster. A dinner plate production mold looks like two automotive hubcaps sandwiched together (or like those round cheese-melt sandwich makers). Each dinner plate production mold can be used for making about 100 plates while molds for more intricate wares such as teacups can only be used about 10 to 15 times. Plaster is used for molding instead of metal because it draws out moisture from the clay. Through machines, the molded clays are processed to remove any excess air and passed through a dryer to decrease the moisture level to 0.5 percent. The plates are then moved to a finishing machine where damp sponges smooth out and finish the edges of each plate. Each plate is manually inspected for quality control and placed on setters (made of a material that can withstand extremely high temperatures) so that they maintain their form when baked inside the oven or kiln. After baking, the plates are given a stone bath to polish each china plate, producing a vibrant finish and then run through an industrial dishwasher and dryer. Each ware is then inspected for flaws and pieces that pass quality control move on to the glazing process.
-
Glazing
-
During the glazing process, the china is preheated so that the glaze will adhere to its surface. Automatic spray guns cover every part of the china with glaze. After spraying, the china is again placed in another type of oven or gloss kiln. It undergoes three stages inside the kiln: ramp-up, soak and cool-down. After the gloss kiln, the wares are again inspected for uneven or sharp edges.
Decorating
-
Some fine china are decorated while others remain plain. Depending on the detail involved, some may require personal artistic touches while others can be easily done by a machine. There are three options for decorating a piece of china: decals, precious metals (including gold, platinum or both) and enamel.
-
