A NOVEL ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY MICROWAVE ASSISTED METHOD FOR FAST DRYING OF PORCELAIN INSULATORS

摘要

To achieve the objects, and purpose of the present invention, a method has been developed which allows drying of porcelain components using an environment friendly process. The processing has been carried out using a microwave furnace operating at 2.45 GHz frequency. This method enables reduction of cycle time by 70 - 80% and reduction in energy cost by 20 - 40% over conventional method. Further, the properties of the dried products as measured by different analytical techniques were shown to be either comparable or in some cases better than their conventional counterparts. The process is environment friendly since it does not use the ever depleting fossil fuels for processing. The technology developed here can be scaled up on a commercial scale in drying porcelain materials in a cost-effective manner.