In Khurja, all the stoneware pieces (that have stain painting and clear glaze on them) go through a single round of firing. This is greatly cost effective. Bone china, on the other hand usually undergoes three rounds - bisque firing, glaze firing and sticker firing - all separately. So, it is usually a bit more expensive. Mostly the firing is carried out with diesel fuel.
Firing in the kiln takes the ware through three zones:
• Pre - Heating zone (about 600 degrees),
• Heating zone (about 1200 degrees) and
• Ccooling zone (about 480 degrees).
On an average, one car (container trolley) of the furnace containing 1680 pieces of cups would take 15 hours to run the length of the furnace (about 110 feet). So, the ware that one feeds from the pre-heating end can be taken out from the cooling end in fifteen hours, ready to be used or worked upon further.
