Kiln furniture
Why choose Imerys for your kiln furniture?
We offer an extensive range of high-performance kiln furniture (KF) solutions for sanitaryware, tableware, technical ceramics and roof tile manufacturing, based on the widest portfolio of quality raw materials such as cordierite, silicon carbide (SiC), high-alumina and mullite-cordierite.
Our kiln furniture solutions offer key benefits:
- Higher productivity - Optimized designs for maximum kiln efficiency
- Energy efficiency - Lightweight designs for reduced energy consumption
- Quality products - Precise geometry for flawless end products
- Long service life - Superior thermal stability and resistance
Kiln furniture tailored to your specific requirements
Thanks to our expertise in a large range of applications and our state-of-the-art production technologies, our design office is able to tailor all our kiln furniture solutions to your specific requirements.
- End-to-End support - From concept validation and FEM simulations (thermal/mechanical) to technical documentation and daily on-site production technical support.
- Multi-Market expertise - Our dedicated team has in-depth expertise in designing tailored solutions for roofing tile, tableware, sanitaryware, and technical ceramics manufacturing.
- Innovation - Cutting-edge designs based on lightweight materials for energy savings; disruptive concepts, such as T-shape, for increased productivity; Shrinksan™ reusable concept for sustainable sanitaryware production.
- Advanced prototyping & tooling - We harness high-end technology, including CNC programming, 3D printing, 3D scanning and complex tool design for pressing and extrusion, to deliver precise and customized hardware.
- Solutions combining materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and cordierite, to ensure the right material is used for its right purpose (eg: SiC pads for cordierite H-cassettes).
Kiln furniture for roof tiles
Imerys is a leading world supplier of kiln furniture for ceramic roof tiles. We provide innovative, high-performance solutions designed to meet the industry's current and future demands.
Our kiln furniture solutions for roof tiles guarantee:
- High degree of automation - facilitating roof tile handling.
- Very good dimensional reproducibility in terms of size, flatness – achieved through very high accuracy and stability of support dimensions.
- Outstanding service life – guaranteed by Imerys’ extended expertise in body composition delivering supports that demonstrate excellent thermo-mechanical resistance.
Our kiln furniture solutions for roof tiles
Our offer includes a comprehensive range of H-cassettes and U-cassettes, as well as unique T-shaped cassettes, designed for both traditional tunnel or intermittent kilns.
- Upright firing of roof tiles
- Automated handling process
- Firing temperatures up to 1,200°C
- Firing cycle times between 25 and 50h
- Homogeneous firing
- Flat firing of roof tiles
- Automated handling process
- Firing temperature up to 1,200°C with shorter cycle times (10-12h)
- Homogeneous firing due to a precise air flow control
- Excellent tile flatness
- Allow for all types of surface treatment: powder/glaze/engobes
- Tailored to your accessories with patented SiSiC anti-sticking pads
- Innovative, patented lightweight design
- Accommodate at least one additional stack
- Energy savings due to optimized cassette per tile ratio
- Superior blade stability
- Prevents foot chipping
Our design office can provide tailored solutions to suit your specific requirements, utilizing state-of-the-art design tools including advanced mechanical and thermal simulation software and cutting-edge 3D printing technology.
Our high-performance raw material range for rooftiles KF includes:
- ZSA2 - State-of-the-art solution exhibiting a good balance between density and modulus of rupture (MOR).
- Greenlite - Innovative, patented cordierite-based material offering -18% weight reduction vs. ZSA without compromising mechanical performance.
- QCM - Cordierite-based material with outstanding mechanical properties, allows to reduce thickness of cassette wall and plateau thus achieving lighter KF. Ideal for new projects.
We also offer a full set of refractories for your kiln cars designed to withstand heavy loads, presenting:
- Extended lifetime
- Good thermal insulation
Kiln furniture for sanitaryware
Harnessing our unique portfolio of high-quality materials, extensive range of shaping processes and robust design capabilities, we are able to provide a comprehensive range of high-performance kiln furniture solutions specifically tailored to the needs of the sanitaryware industry, including our eco-friendly, reusable ShrinkSan™ solution.
Our sanitaryware kiln furniture solutions offer:
- Increased productivity due to their optimized design, customized to suit your product mix.
- Improved end product quality due to their highly accurate, stable geometry.
- Reduced energy consumption thanks to lightweight solutions, without compromising mechanical performance.
- Lower maintenance costs through simple, stable, lightweight and dry assemblies.
Our kiln furniture solutions for sanitaryware
With decades of expertise and large-scale extrusion capabilities, we are able to deliver premium extruded batts, perimeter blocks, and tube solutions, specifically tailored to the sanitaryware industry, as well as a novel, reusable solution, ShrinkSan™.
- Low thermal mass for reduced energy consumption and lower CO2 emissions
- Easy and quick to assemble
17% lighter than standard beams with equivalent resistance
- Innovative design
- -18% lighter than standard SiC beams with equivalent resistance
- Lightweight
- Good thermal shock resistance
- Low maintenance
- Easy storage
- High thermal shock resistance
- Extended service life
- Versatile designs
- Low maintenance
- Dense load capacity
- Flexible, easy-to-handle systems
- Cost effective
Our high-performance raw material range for sanitaryware includes:
- Cordierite-mullite kiln furniture - exhibiting high thermal shock and creep resistance along with excellent mechanical performance.
- Silicon carbide kiln furniture - offering high strength, low thermal expansion, very high thermal conductivity, good creep resistance, corrosion resistance and resistance to wear.
ShrinksanTM - a sustainable KF solution for sanitarywareDuring firing, ceramic pieces shrink and create friction against kiln furniture, often causing defects like glaze chipping or foot deformation. To prevent this, manufacturers use disposable tiles between the piece and furniture. While effective, these tiles generate significant waste and are rarely recycled, adding to landfill or incineration burdens. The environmental cost of these disposable systems extends beyond waste, including the energy, water and raw materials used to produce these disposable systems. |
To address this sustainability challenge, we have developed ShrinkSan™, a patented, reusable kiln furniture system specifically designed for toilet manufacturing that manages piece contraction during firing.
Why choose ShrinkSan reusable kiln furniture?
Our eco-friendly ShrinkSan range of kiln furniture can help you cut your carbon footprint — and your costs. Here’s how.
The system comprises four mobile elements on a refractory batt, held in place by an organic spacer. As the spacer decomposes during firing, the elements mirror the contraction of the sanitaryware. After firing, the system is easily reset with a new spacer.
ShrinkSan™ can be reused over 800 times, reducing waste by around 3 tonnes per 1,000 toilets produced.
An independent Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of Shrinksan, conducted by PwC, demonstrated:
- -76% carbon emissions vs. disposable plates
- Reduced carbon footprint of toilet production by 6%
Shrinksan also offers several other benefits over disposable tiles such as:
- Easy set-up and maintenance
- Better heat transfer thanks to an open design that eases heat transfer
- Closely mirrors the differential contraction of ceramic pieces
- Cost-effective solution
This ShrinkSan system has been tested and approved by several major sanitaryware players across Europe.
Kiln furniture for tableware
We supply a full range of high-performance kiln solutions for tableware suitable for all tableware types, from porcelain and stoneware to earthenware and bone china.
Our custom kiln furniture solutions for tableware boost productivity, efficiency, and the quality and durability of your end products.
They provide:
- Enhanced productivity - Our customized designs foster fast firing, high setting density and are fully compatible with your handling equipment
- Reduced energy consumption - Thanks to ultra-light materials and innovative design
- High quality and extended lifetime - Due to their high level of consistency
- Lower maintenance costs - Thanks to their extended lifetime.
Our kiln furniture solutions for tableware
Our tableware KF solutions are adapted to every firing stage — biscuit, glost and decorative.
- Batts & biscuit setters
- Spacers
- Caps
- Props
- Beams
- Batts & Beams
- Setters
- Saggers
- Spacers
- T-cranks, fish cranks, spider cranks
- T-cranks, spider cranks
- Perforated and ribbed batts
- Ultra light setters
- Spacers
Our high-performance raw material range for tableware includes:
- Cordierite-Mullite kiln furniture: High thermal shock and creep resistance, plus excellent mechanical strength.
- Mullite-alumina kiln furniture: Precision-engineered for superior performance in standard and specialized applications.
- Silicon carbide (SiC) kiln furniture: High strength, low thermal expansion, exceptional thermal conductivity, and outstanding resistance to wear, creep, and corrosion.
Kiln furniture for technical and advanced ceramics
We offer a range of tough, durable kiln furniture solutions, designed for a broad spectrum of technical and advanced ceramics manufacturing — including custom-made KF solutions.
Our kiln furniture solutions for technical and advanced ceramics offer exceptional resistance to high temperatures, wear, mechanical stress — strength and fracture — and corrosion.
They include high-alumina, mullite-cordierite and silicon carbide kiln furniture solutions and the following configurations:
- Box saggars
- Lids and ring saggars
- Setters
- Batts, beams and props
- Tubes
- Custom-made kiln furniture
Imerys your partner of choice for KF technical support
Whatever your requirements – whether it’s setting up your initial installation, optimizing your existing production lines, upgrading or maintaining your equipment, or developing new pieces that go beyond conventional standards — our kiln furniture experts have the capabilities to design and deliver complete kiln furniture systems to meet your specific needs.
Sanitaryware
Ceramics
Imerys supplies high-performance mineral solutions used in ceramic manufacturing across sanitaryware, tableware, tiles and technical ceramics. Our portfolio of kaolin, ball clay, feldspar, wollastonite and talc supports ceramic body formulation, glaze performance and firing stability. Ceramic producers across Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, North and South America rely on Imerys minerals to improve product strength, surface quality, whiteness and manufacturing efficiency.
