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Fast Fire Glazes

Industrial ceramics are fired very quickly and require minimal micro bubbles and zero pinholes and blisters. Fast fire late melting glazes accomplish that.

Key phrases linking here: fast fire glazes, fast-fire frits, late melting, late-melting, fast-fire - Learn more

Details

Fast fire glazes are used in most industries and many can fire up and down in less than two hours. The process produces more consistent results and obvious reductions in production costs. This contrasts with firings of 24-76 hours cold-to-cold that most potters having gas kilns would do.

Technicians in industry think about the 'seal over temperature' of glazes. They want this to be high enough that all gases of decomposition from body and glaze materials have already been expelled before it is reached. If this does not happen then bubbles and blisters occur. They also think about the speed and suddenness at which the melt occurs (the more quickly the better).

Low carbon and fine particled bodies are also considered important. This shortens the time needed for soaking the bisque firing.

Potters use high levels of alkalis (from high feldspar content) and lots of B2O3 (from often significant levels of Gerstley Borate, Colemanite or high-boron frits). These glazes melt too early for fast fire. Instead, levels of CaO, MgO, ZnO are higher in fast-fire glazes, and these are sourced from frits instead of raw materials. Not surprisingly then, fast-fire glazes are taken to higher temperatures to reach the active states of these later melting oxides.

Fast fire glazes can also be formulated to form a crystal network early in the firing (from CaO or MgO) that is porous and stable to above 1000C (after which it collapses and melts quickly). Search for the term "fast fire" (in the materials area) to find frits intended for this purpose. This will help you to learn more about the chemistry of fast-fire glazes.

Except for high temperatures like cone 8-10, almost all glazes are fluxed with B2O3 (sourced by almost all common frits, Gerstley Borate, Ulexite, Colemanite). Consider cone 6 glazes: Although they might fire to a glassy surface they begin to melt far lower than you might think. G2926B, for example, has a conservative chemistry so its melt fluidity is low - yet it still begins to melt around cone 04! This is obviously not a “late melting” glaze. But that term is relative - it does not mean that a cone 6 fast fire glaze melts suddenly at cone 5. It is more likely to mean that it begins to melt at cone 02-2 instead of 06-04. At temperatures above cone 8 where inexpensive minerals that contain no B2O3 or Li2O are effective fluxes, fast-fire formulations are much more abundant. As noted above, ZnO fluxed stoneware glazes do melt later, however they come with baggage (not the least of which is their effect on color).

Related Information

Your boron glaze might melt alot earlier than you think

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The porcelain mug on the left is fired to cone 6 with G2926B clear glossy glaze. This recipe only contains 25% boron frit (0.33 molar of B2O3). Yet the mug on the right (the same clay and glaze) is only fired to cone 02 yet the same glaze is already well melted! What does this mean? Industry avoids high boron glazes (they consider 0.33 to be high boron) because this early melting behavior means gases cannot clear before the glaze starts to melt (causing surface defects). For this reason, fast fire glazes melt much later. Yet many middle temperature reactive glazes in use by potters have double the amount of B2O3 that this glaze has!

Why fast fire glazes employ zinc - a melt fluidity test tells us

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We are comparing the degree of melt fluidity (10 gram GBMF test balls melted down onto a tile) between two base clear glazes fired to cone 6 (top) and cone 1 (bottom).
Left: G2926B clear boron-fluxed (0.33 molar) clear base glaze sold by Plainsman Clays.
Right: G3814 zinc-fluxed (0.19 molar) clear base.
Two things are clear: Zinc is a powerful flux (it only takes 5% in the recipe to yield the 0.19 molar). Zinc melts late: Notice that the boron-fluxed glaze is already flowing well at cone 1, whereas the zinc one has not even started. This is very good for fast fire because the unmelted glaze will pass more gases of decomposition from the body before it melts, producing fewer glaze defects.

Firing a porcelain in less than 4 hours total

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This porcelain mug put into kiln at 8:45am and I was drinking coffee from it at 12:15! How? One way to fast-fire is to fire a lot lower. This is Zero3 porcelain made using Dragonite Halloysite (not quite as white-burning as New Zealand Halloysite). It is the L2934C recipe. It was fired to cone 03 and glazed with G2931K clear glaze (which has fired crystal clear and flawless). I fired at 1200F/hr to 1950F, held it for 15 minutes, cooled at 999F/hr to 1850F and held it for 30 minutes, then dropped as fast as the kiln would do. Is this really porcelain? Yes. And it is super strong. The frit in the recipe is magic, making it vitrify quickly and completely.

Graph of wall tile fast-fire frits vs. traditional

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Links

Materials Fusion Frit F-13
Materials Fusion Frit F-49
Materials Fusion Frit F-541
Materials Fusion Frit FZ-376A
Materials Fusion Frit FZ-557
Materials General Frit GF-150
Articles Ceramic Glazes Today
Todd Barson of Ferro Corp. overviews the glaze formulations being using in various ceramics industry sectors. He discusses fast fire, glaze materials, development and trouble shooting.
Articles The Chemistry, Physics and Manufacturing of Glaze Frits
A detailed discussion of the oxides and their purposes, crystallization, phase separation, thermal expansion, solubility, opacity, matteness, batching, melting.
Glossary Ceramic Glaze
Ceramic glazes are glasses that have been adjusted to work on and with the clay body they are applied to.
By Tony Hansen
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