Reid Harvey on wed 31 may 00
Dear Clayartists,
**PLEASE HELP THESE FOLKS**
Friends of mine in Dakar, Senegal, have been involved in a great
project, getting people there making and using fuel-efficienct ceramic
cook stoves. Fuel savings may be about 50%, of what was preveiously
burned in metal stoves and on three rock fires, which means that fewer
trees would be cut in this arid country. They have been firing their
kilns with kerosene, but now have a gas kiln, for which they have had
difficulty getting an operation manual. Can someone on Clayart help with
some simple does and don'ts? Their write up of kiln specs follows.
Others on this list have had a lot more experience than I have with this
kind of kiln.
Thanks!
P.S. One thing that stands out: I would guess that unless they have a
very good source of gas, they could maybe gang up gas bottles, rather
than using the bottle supplied, of 2.3 cubic meters. If I am correct
the normal gas supply in this part of the world is in 12.5 liter
bottles, a number of which could be ganged up. I think it is a problem
that very often it is a lot more costly to refill the special sized
bottles. Note also, in firing stove linings the kiln is only fired to
900C.
Reid Harvey
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
Steev Lynn wrote:
Here are some technical specifications of the gas kiln located at the
Centre BOPP here in Dakar:
The kiln is about 1.3 cubic meters. It's called Turbo Gaz, air pulse
1350 to 1410 degrees celsius rating. The gas supply is a cylindrical
tank that appears to be about 2 m3 volume, linked to the kiln with 20 mm
copper piping. The regulator on the kiln bears the inscriptions J48
Size Rc1, Pi max: 0.34 bar, Po range 12.5 - 25 mb, pressure max: 200
mb. Another regulator on the gas pipe on the wall is rated for 40 kg/h,
Sortie 0-3 bar. The control box is called a Bentrup thermocomputer TC
805 by Kilns & Furnaces LTD; it features two identical small panels
labeled Reduction On and Reduction Off; each of these has a dial where
the units are hundreds of degrees celsius, up to 1400 degrees, and the
notation Pt Rh. A panel in the top right corner has LCD displays and
buttons for programming the operation of the kiln. A small switch is
labeled Excess air On, and there are large buttons On and Off. Lastly
on the control box, there is a large revolving handle with positions On
and Off. This control box is mounted on the wall.
Mounted on the kiln itself is a smaller box with a button labeled Start
and lights labeled Flame Established and Flame Off. The ducts on the
kiln are of substantial steel pipe, some about 20 mm in diameter and
some twice as wide. The gas and air pipes are color-differentiated,
yellow and blue. They all have manual valves. I have a schematic drawing
of the control panel wiring and a catalog page with some basic
description of the kiln and its functioning.
I've tried to err on the side of giving too much detail, but if there
are any important ones missing, let me know and I can get more. We're
still waiting for the manual.
Thanks again for your help,
-Steev
Dakar
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