SITUATION
The pottery industry overall was facing a problem with glazed bodies as the gypsum in the clay dehydrated during firing and rehydrated in the atmosphere. Those conditions resulted in swelling and caused the glaze to “pop” thus scrapping the piece. Through discussions with customers and investigation of pottery that was sent to us for failure analysis, we discovered that the white grain remaining in the popped area would aggressively react with lime-based muriatic acid. We also noticed that this grain was always at least 0.5mm (500microns) in size which correlates to a US 30 mesh screen.
Only on very rare occasions had we ever seen a pop-out with a grain smaller than 0.5mm. At the time, many pottery clay manufacturers were using our Hawthorn Bond 35 mesh size, which has a high percentage of particles greater than 30 mesh in size. We spoke with customers about changing the Hawthorn Bond 35 mesh to a finer product to eliminate the pop-out problem. However, we ran into considerable push-back because they required a coarse fireclay for its “tooth” in certain bodies and applications.
SOLUTION
To resolve the dilemma, we developed an entirely new product, Hawthorn Bond 40 mesh, which eliminated particles greater than 30 mesh in size. After some trials and testing by our customers, the product proved to be highly effective, and it became widely accepted throughout the industry.
IMPACT
The pottery industry generally feels that their raw material suppliers do not focus much on their needs because they are small in comparison to the larger industrial ceramics manufacturers. Through this year-long process, we engaged in productive technical discussions with many different leaders in the industry. Taking the time to listen to their needs, researching and developing a new product, and educating our customers on a successful solution, we were able to isolate the problem and provide a significant innovation – and we built a strong bond of trust throughout the industry in the process.