Heatwork is the combined effect of temperature and time. It is important to several industries: *

Ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

s *Glass and metal annealing *Metal

heat treating Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also ...

Pyrometric device Pyrometric devices gauge heatwork (the combined effect of both time and temperature) when firing materials inside a kiln. Pyrometric devices do not measure temperature, but can report ''temperature equivalents''. In principle, a pyrometric device r ...

s can be used to gauge heat work as they deform or contract due to heatwork to produce temperature equivalents. Within tolerances, firing can be undertaken at lower temperatures for a longer period to achieve comparable results. When the amount of heatwork of two firings is the same, the pieces may look identical, but there may be differences not visible, such as mechanical strength and

microstructure Microstructure is the very small scale structure of a material, defined as the structure of a prepared surface of material as revealed by an optical microscope above 25× magnification. The microstructure of a material (such as metals, polymers ...

. Heatwork is taught in material science courses, but is not a precise measurement or a valid scientific concept.

External links

Temperature equivalents table

description of Bullers Rings.

Temperature equivalents table & description of Orton pyrometric cones.

for Bullers Ring. Glass physics Pottery Metallurgy Ceramic engineering {{engineering-stub