Ceramic

Custom Mug
Material Selection Analysis

What material
is it made
from?
Ceramic mugs are made from
either clay, earthenware, stoneware
or porcelain and moulded to create
the mug shape and then eventually
fired to form a permanent shape.
For pottery around 1000 degrees centigrade.
For earthenware, it is normally fired at 1000
degrees centigrade to 1080 degrees
centigrade.
For stoneware, 1100 degrees centigrade to
1300 degrees centigrade.
For porcelain at about 1200 degrees
centigrade to 1400 degrees centigrade.
The most common temperature range for
industrial ceramics is 1162 degrees
centigrade to 1240 degrees centigrade.
What makes ceramics
suitable?
• Ceramics are good for thermal insulation so maintain heat in hot drinks.
• Relatively strong with high density so can withstand dishwasher use and high
temperature liquids.
• Very durable and can be reused many times which is suitable for a mug.
• Can be mass produced easily – ceramics are not excessively expensive.
Manufacturing
Process
 Milling
To start the process, raw material is fed into a grinder and crushed into smallest, more
manageable clay powder, then added into a mixer along with quartz, feldspar and
water for 15 hours. It’s then fed into moulding tubes and cast into long clay logs.
Moulding
The clay logs are sliced into separate portion amounts
and placed into a single use mould, then formed into
the shape of the mug. Once the mould is dry, the mug
is removed to prepare for the next step.
 Handle
Application
The handles are created using the first two steps and now need to be attached.
They are dipped into a mixture of clay and water called slip, which acts as an
adhesive to bind it to the mug.
Detailing
and
Glazing
A technician then proof-checks to remove
excess clay or to smooth out rough edges,
then rinses off dust and debris and gives
them a finish. The mugs then are coloured
and given their ceramic glaze. Custom mugs
are hand-painted to make sure it is quality
coating then set aside to dry for 12 hours.
Firing and Adding
Design
Once the glaze has dried, they go into the kiln. They’re put onto a conveyor belt in rows and
in at the standard temperature (slide 2). When adding the design, the logos or designs are
screen printed onto the custom ceramic mugs. This is the process of forcing ink through a
screen to create a image.
Could a different
material be used?
Steel could additionally be used to keep hot drinks
hot, but glass mugs could potentially be a better
aesthetics choice and wood and hard plastics are a lot
more durable and less fragile compared to the others.
Making a
Prototype at
School
To make my own ceramic mug, I would use the art department’s
firing kilns and use clay to make it. The equipment it requires is
pottery wheel and a kiln. Manufacturing methods include
shaping the clay on the wheel, however, that requires a lot of
skill so maybe coiling instead and glazing then firing.
 Coiling
This is where you create long coils of clay and then use slurry to bind together
the layers of coils, then smooth down the edges so it creates one mass of clay.