Mert & Holly Kilpatrick on sun 15 jul 01
My employer, Mallinckrodt Baker, manufactures lab chemicals, and originally
many years ago pioneered the concept publishing the chemical analysis of
products on the label, so users (chemists) would know the impurities in the
product and could proceed accordingly. Now many of our customers are in the
microelectronics and biotech fields, and they require data on our chemicals
that you wouldn't believe. Not just the chemical analysis, but data on each
ingredient, if it is a blend, and where we purchased that raw material, and
who manufactured it, at what plant. They don't just want to know we bought
a raw material from Dow, they want to know which Dow plant processed it,
etc. Specifications for materials are in some cases at parts per billion
and moving to "ppt". Our customers (such as Intel) come into our plants for
days at a time, auditing every facet of not only our manufacturing
processes, but our QA and QC processses, shipping, warehousing, employee
training, and many more.
Well, they have a lot more clout as customers than we do as potters! We are
looked at as a pain if we ask for MSDS's at our supplier, and then we get
some dirty, poorly Xeroxed, difficult to read document that doesn't answer
our questions anyway.
Holly
Original Subject: defense of tom wirt
> one of the things that is driving many potters nuts
> is the lack of information flowing from our clay supply
> companies. it is if the formula for a basic stoneware clay
> is sacred or the greatest secret on earth. we cannot believe
> that this makes that much difference...
> in my opinion, the recipe for the clay body should be printed
> on the box, or at least in the catalog. when we ask, `what kind
> of grog are you using`...we should get the answer.
> every glaze recipe in the world is published, but
> we do not know what is in the clay we buy.
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