Skutt Kilns Zone Control


Skutt Kilns


     Precise firing is critical to production artists working with sensitive materials or anyone who must achieve consistent results when firing unbalanced loads, either because of configuration of their ware, or because of deadline demands.

     Electric kilns naturally fire hotter at the center. Skutt kiln elements are balanced to counteract this tendency. In addition, uneven loads absorb heat at different rates, depending on the mass of each section of the kiln.  For example, if you fire a load of tiles in racks at the bottom of the kiln, topped by slender vases, it is likely that the tiles at the bottom of the kiln will be under fired.

     At one time, the only answer to controlling specific heat zones of a kiln was a combination of multiple thermocouples and very costly industrial electronic controllers. Today advanced technology  has made multiple thermocouple controllers feasible and affordable in Skutt Kilnmaster Zone Control Kilns, which are ideal for bisque manufacturers, production porcelain artists, production glass artists and production tile artists.

     Skutt Zone Control Kilns have a thermocouple in each section. As the kiln temperature increases, they sense any temperature variation, or lag within as little as 5 degrees F. The controller then processes the information for each section and determines whether the section is following the firing program. If the section is firing cool, it will send a signal to the relay to energize the element in the cool section.

     The result is precise firing accuracy throughout the kiln, usually combined with a modest increase in firing times. You can fire any load with increased confidence.

     Zone Control turns off the warmer section and fires the cooler section until they catch up. Then all sections resume firing as usual, ensuring uniformity throughout the entire load.

Pros and Cons

     Zone control is not recommended for all applications. Like many things in life, there are pros and cons to zone control. We computer balance all of our elements. Kilns lose most of there heat through the lid and the slab. This is why we use hotter elements in the top and bottom of the kiln and cooler elements in the center. This makes most of our kilns fire extremely even without the need for zone control. There are times however when you need the exact control Zone Control can offer.

Pros

  • More Even Firing Top To Bottom – Often necessary when firing very tall pots or working with extremely sensitive material like thick glass projects.
  • Your Friends Will Think You Are Really Cool – Do not discount this. Your cool factor will go up like 10 fold.

    Cons

  • Longer Firing Times – Because the elements need to cycle off more to retain uniformity, your firing times will be extended.
  • Shorter Relay Life – Standard relays (Not Mercury relays which are standard on all PK kilns) will cycle more often and therefore have a shorter life.
  • More Thermocouple Maintenance – Well, there are 3 so you do the math. It is really important to use cones in every firing to monitor the accuracy of the thermocouples. If one starts to go before the others it can actually make Zone Control fire your kiln UNEVEN.
  • Shorter Element Life – At high temperatures it can be difficult for the elements to keep up with the program when they start to wear. Therefore you will most likely get an error message that shuts down the firing sooner in the life of the elements then if you did not have Zone Control. You can turn Zone Control off and milk a little more life out of them.
  • More Difficult to Diagnose Problems – Since more is going on during the firing often times it makes troubleshooting more difficult but not impossible


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Skutt Kilns Zone Control