Protect your reputation as a clay body manufacturer.

Monitor incoming clays to prevent problems.

A kaolin shipment just came in. "UnReady Freddie" is panicking. He thinks he remembers that products made with the last shipment were lacking plasticity and the fired color was off. He is going to have to come up with different lame excuses for complaining customers this time.

"Ready Freddie" has Insight-Live and has collected years of data on incoming shipments in one searchable place. He knows what to check on each and has fired bars, in-mix tests, particle size checks, data sheets, lots of pictures, notes, etc. He also has traceability - he knows what material batch went into what product. He works with production to do material lot tracking and with purchasing to keep suppliers aware he is testing. Because Ready Freddie knows how materials vary he can compensate recipes and processes so customers see a consistent product.

UnReady Freddie has a few spreadsheets somewhere. But he is busy with other things. Who do you want in charge of product consistency (and company reputation)? Here is what to do next: Have your technician study the page "Testing a New Load of EP Kaolin" (link below). You will be hearing from him/her soon.

Related Pictures

Are you testing production clay bodies? Glazes?

Turn "spreadsheet chaos" into "database order"

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Are you the technician at a company producing clay bodies, glazes, and underglazes? That creates a lot of data. Are you storing it in spreadsheets? That’s like filing lab reports in a shoebox! Searching for data ends up taking longer than the test itself. And it is seldom in the format you need, it is not linked to anything else, it doesn't have the information you need. Excel was not designed for this, your lab deserves a database. Databases enable insight. Insight-live.com is the right home for all the data you collect.

Imagine all your lab data in one searchable, structured, secure system — everything hierarchical, linked and accessible. Being able to compare results across time, batches, and processes. Having a full data trail. For example, maintain master recipes of everything and track their evolution — what changed, why it changed, and how it performed. Maintaining a file system full of thousands of spreadsheets is great for burying data.

Co-locate the QC Lab/Studio With Production. Why?

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In almost all cases, it is better to physically locate your quality control (QC) lab and studio close to or integrated with the clay body production facility. Here's why:
1. Faster Feedback Loop: Problems in production can be tested and addressed immediately. QC staff can pull samples directly from the line and respond in real time.
2. Improved Collaboration: Informal conversations and direct observation encourage faster recognition of issues and shared ownership of product quality. Production staff can observe lab tests and better understand why certain process controls matter.
3. Better Testing Relevance: Tests (throwing, casting, drying, glazing, firing) reflect the exact materials and conditions used in production, not outdated or transported samples. Factors surrounding run production are known.
4. Shared Culture of Quality: When the lab is physically distant, it can become an “ivory tower.” On-site, it becomes part of the process — not an external check, but a partner. Visibility of the lab reinforces its role in continuous improvement.
5. Lower Cost and Logistics: Less delay, double handling, and easier scheduling. Equipment and space can be shared.

20 Skids of Material Just arrived

Fearful Freddie doesn't know what to do!

Fatique Freddie is overwhelmed by incoming material

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Fatigue Freddie is scared. His company doesn't take responsibility for product quality variations resulting from material variations. But when it happens he gets blamed anyway. Production wants to start using it tomorrow! He doesn't test all the product runs they make. He doesn't test incoming materials. He doesn’t know how he would handle the mountain of data that world produce, or how to learn from and act on it. Plus he's alone, there is no cooperation between production, sales, QC in feeding info into any kind of record-keeping system.

Minimal testing: Give the shipment a new code in the recipe area of Insight-live. Enter what is known. Upload a picture of any certificates provided with it. Are all the pallets lot numbered? Record that in the notes. Are they all the same lot? Record that. Are the pallets sequentially numbered? Test one from each lot for oversize particles (very important for clays). Make an SHAB test bar also, get it/them dry (in the dehydrator) and into the kiln overnight.

Videos

Links

Articles	Setting up a Clay Testing Program in Your Company Set up a routine testing pipeline and start generating historical data that will enable your staff to understand your source materials and maintain, adjust and troubleshoot your clay body recipes.
Projects	Testing a New Load of EP Kaolin Kaolins can vary in many ways. Yet they are the foundation of all porcelain and light stoneware clay body recipes. It is vital to test each incoming shipment of material. Problematic brands can even require some testing on every pallet.

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