In conjunction with our laboratory, which focuses on bench-scale testing, Harrop offers a Toll Firing Service to custom fire larger quantities of ceramic products or materials. Firings can be performed on quantities as small as a couple of pounds or a few pieces, and as large as several tons or thousands of pieces. Our toll firing service may be the ideal solution to your needs for interim production of existing products, or for firing sufficient quantities of new products for meaningful market samples. In these cases, you simply ship us your materials, we fire them per your instructions, and we ship the materials back to you. Or, in the case of your developing new compositions or products, Harrop also offers technical consulting services, in conjunction with toll firing, to help you determine firing feasibilities and proper firing cycles. Our testing laboratory is also available to provide custom process monitoring, and to conduct pre-firing and/or post-firing testing of your products at your request.

 

Harrop's 8,000 sq. ft. facility contains some 15 electric and gas-fired periodic kilns with temperature capabilities up to 1,700°C and atmosphere control. Sizes range from 1 cu. ft. to 27 cu. ft. electric kilns, and from 2 cu. ft. to 57 cu. ft. gas-fired kilns., Our facility also operates a 20 ft. continuous ceramic tape caster and an 6” dia. x 6 ‘ long electric rotary kiln. Materials can be handled on pallets, or in crates, drums, bags or super sacks. In handling powders and granular materials, three independent, sealed process rooms are maintained at our facility to isolate materials, minimizing cross-contamination. Kiln furniture required for loading products into kilns can be furnished by either you or Harrop, at your choosing.

The Materials Evaluation Laboratory has been an in-house testing facility for many decades, providing essential materials science expertise on the thermal behavior of ceramic materials to Harrop engineers in designing industrial kilns and dryers. At the request of many clients, we re-organized this group in 1970 to include an independent, fee-based laboratory for thermal testing of ceramics, metals, polymers, and composites. Since then, we have serviced thousands of customers for one-time analyses, for multi-sample R&D projects, and for on-going QC programs.