High temperatures (>1000 degrees C) monitoring during the sintering process in microwave oven using RFBGs

Abstract

The sintering of porcelain tableware is a process involving temperatures around 1400 degrees C. The monitoring of this parameter is crucial to control the quality of the final product. A deviation from the standard values can be enough for the bloating phenomenon to occur. The most widely used methods for the thermal monitoring of the sintering process in the microwave oven involve high temperature-suitable thermocouples and pyrometers which are expensive solutions, thus the simultaneous monitoring of several points becomes unfeasible as a result of the associated cost. In this work, we present preliminary results of the thermal monitoring of the sintering process in a microwave oven cavity during the sintering of porcelain tableware using fibre Bragg gratings. For this application, the advantages of this technology are the immunity to electromagnetic interferences, small size and feasibility of multiplexing information from several sensors onto one optical fibre cable. A mesh of regenerated fibre Bragg gratings was used, and the data predicts that this technology can be a suitable alternative to the traditional thermal monitoring methods.