When To Apply Ptcr; Application; General Application Advice - schupp PTCR Handbuch

PTCR
Technique & Application
time and atmosphere, since both factors also strongly influence the
shrinkage of the ring.
4.

When to apply PTCR?

Because of its specific properties, PTCR has a wide range of
different applications for different purposes. It is a perfect means for
the determination and maintenance of the exact heat treatment by
the product.
The main application purposes are:
A) Process control and optimization
B) Trouble shooting
C) Yield improvement
D) Improvement of product quality
E) Reduction of inspection time and costs
F) Quality assurance
A) Process control and optimization
The most frequent use of PTCR is in optimizing and managing the
firing processes to arrive at the optimal product quality and to assess
the thermal performance and characteristics of a kiln.
The way of working is to make a number of runs with different
settings of the parameters temperature and time. These runs are
characterised by the RT values as determined from the rings. Product
quality analysis determines the optimal run and accompanying RT
values.
In this way the found Ring Temperature is related to a specific firing
process. Once the optimal setting of the process parameters is found,
the PTCR is used to control the process and to recognize deviations
in time and temperature. In future runs the same RT reading will
guarantee the best reproducibility of the firing process.
This method is followed whenever a new product or process has to
be introduced, to determine differences in the thermal characteristics
of new kilns, or after maintenance of kilns.
B) Trouble shooting
This is one of the traditional applications of PTCR; malfunctioning of
(parts of) the equipment. The ring is used to make a mapping of the
kiln in RT in order to locate positions with different thermal behaviour.
After root cause analysis proper corrective action can be taken to
resolve the problem(s) after the problem is solved. PTCR are used to
monitor the thermal performance of the kiln to signal the problem. In
the case of monitoring the number of rings of course is smaller than
during the analysis phase.
The PTCR WEB APP is the ideal supplement for the process
temperature control rings PTCR by SCHUPP
based application bundles recording, documentation and evaluation
simply and safely - also optimized for mobile end devices.
C) Yield improvement
Once the mapping of the thermal characteristics is available, one has
the possibility to further fine-tune the process settings and optimize
Rev. 4_26.01.2018
the yield. This will also lead to optimization of the energy
consumption.
D) Improvement of product quality
Because the process is controlled in a much better way, the scatter in
the quality of the products is minimised. This means that the quality
control of the products can be reduced as a start and may eventually
be reduced further to sampling level only or even abandoned
completely. Rework (if applicable) is minimized.
E) Reduction of inspection time and costs
The improved processing will allow the reduction of the number of
products that have to be inspected and may finally lead to elimination
of the product testing completely. The only thing left is the
measurement of the rings to monitor the process. Easy measurement
can be done by using the PTCR micrometer which allows only one
measurement per ring in order to get a reliable result. In time the
sampling rate maybe reduced to a bare minimum, reducing the
inspection effort to a minimum, whilst guaranteeing an excellent
product quality.
F) Quality Assurance
Process control, as formulated in ISO 9001:2015, nowadays can only
be achieved by virtue of the availability of an objective means to
monitor and control firing processes. PTCR provides this objective
method.
5. PTCR Application

5.1 General application advice

The general procedure during the application is as follows:
Step 1) Placement of the rings in the kiln
Select the rings with the right temperature range. The rings have to
be placed at any location in the kiln where a determination of the
thermal performance is desired. Rings do not have to be measured
before they are put in to place in the kiln because differences are
statistically corrected and integrated in the conversion chart. Sticking
of the rings is prevented by placing a small amount of aluminum oxide
powder or silica powder underneath the ring.
Ceramics. The web-
®
Step 2) Firing process can take place
Step 3) Measurement of the rings
After the firing cycle has been terminated, the ring diameters have to
be measured. Make sure that the rings are identifiable regarding their
position in the kiln for mapping. Every ring only has to be measured
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M.E. SCHUPP Industriekeramik GmbH & Co. KG
Neuhausstraße 4-10, 52078 Aachen/Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 241 -93677-0 Fax: +49 (0) 241 -93677-15
www.schupp-ceramics.com info@schupp-ceramics.com