Drying of a Slip Casting for Tableware Product Using Microwave Continuous Belt Dryer

To demonstrate the potential of microwave drying in the ceramic industry, microwave demolding of tableware product by a continuous microwave belt drier has been investigated. This study focuses on the investigation of the effects of the irradiation time, sample size, microwave power and location of magnetron on overall drying kinetics. The results show that microwave drying has several advantages over the conventional method such as shorter processing time, volumetric dissipation of energy throughout a product, high energy efficiency, reduced amount of mold usage, and offering product quality. Further quantitative validation of experimental data could be very useful, especially in providing information for processing high-performance microwave drying for developing the ceramic industry in Thailand.