Spring lets its blue band flutter through the air again
Dear Readers,
Do you know this verse by German poet Eduard Mörike? The colour of our cover object and the sky in northern Germany, which is often cloudless again, brought it to mind. The poem following this line welcomes the new beginning of nature longingly. Similar expectations for a new beginning in politics accompany the newly elected German Bundestag. Whether the agreed special fund and the government’s plans will be more than just a blueprint and whether the construction and brick industry will be able to stop singing the blues is still uncertain. In any case, we at the ZI editorial team did our best to earn a blue ribbon for this issue’s content.
In the first technical article, you can read the report on the project “Energy efficiency and emission reduction - use of hydrogen in the clay brick and tile industry (H2 bricks)“. Stefan Wallat and Wolfgang Adler from the VDEH-Betriebsforschungs-institut GmbH (BFI) in Düsseldorf and Eckhard Rimpel and Rigo Giese from the Institut für Ziegelforschung e.V. in Essen (IZF) describe how the operating limits of the existing burner technology were investigated when the hydrogen content in the fuel was increased, and what results were obtained.
In the second technical article, Saint-Gobain Performance Ceramics & Refractories presents kiln furniture made of silicon carbide (SiC), which can be used to improve performance and reduce energy consumption and therefore costs while maintaining structural integrity. They can also be adapted for electrically heated kilns.
Improvements to Craven Fawcett’s clay preparation machines and Stafier’s drying pallets are among the topics covered in the Technical News section. News from the industry, such as a birthday, an anniversary and a death or the latest developments at brick manufacturers and suppliers, can be found in the personal and company news.
Finally and without talking a blue streak, I would like to recommend a particularly interesting read: the report on the Vienna Museum of Bricks and Building Ceramics.
I wish you an entertaining and informative read.
Yours
Victor Kapr
