At the Brick Research Center at Clemson University a few years ago I saw an experimental roller hearth furnace that consisted of multiple layers of mullite rollers. Bricks were being fired in single layers very quickly through this furnace. It appears that the future of brick manufacturing is to get away from stacked furnace cars and go to much faster single layer firing. That would be perfect for incorporating glass as a raw material.
This may have been more than you wanted to know about solving this particular problem. The intent was to show that the problems we’ve seen in incorporating high levels of recycled glass into brick manufacturing appear to be solvable. In the visits we made to ceramic manufacturers during this project several manufacturers said, in effect, “if you can add glass to my clay mixture and lower the firing temperature and nothing else changes, then we’re interested.”
Well, other things do change. That’s life. But if you can save half the time and half the energy, maybe the price you pay is in being a little flexible and solving some intermediate problems.
Want to see what glass bricks look like?
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