How to Check the Quality of Bone China Ceramic Tableware

Introduction

People always say they want good quality products, how do we determine the quality of bone china ceramic tableware? What’s the checklist for quality? How do I find out if the products’ quality is good enough? Here comes the topic: Checklist for bone china ceramic tableware’s quality.

This subject main includes 3 categories.

1.The basic principles for bone china ceramic tableware quality checking.

2.Appearance quality check for certain bone china ceramic tableware products.

2.1 checklist for bone china ceramic plates and bowls

2.2 checklist for bone china ceramic cups and saucers

2.3 checklist for bone china ceramic teapots

3. Other quality factors for bone china ceramic tableware.

3.1 Handle and mouth bearing inspection

3.2 Surface scratches inspection

3.3 Dishwasher resistance test

3.4 Microwave oven resistance test

Some basic rules of daily-use ceramic products

1, The product can not have chips, cracks, or other serious quality conditions. Touch and feel with your hands to check the glaze surface to see if it’s smooth or if there are any bumps or uneven dots.

2, The shape should be circumscribed, put the bone china ceramic products in an even place and observe, it should stable sit and with small or no deformation.

3, Hold the bone china ceramic products on the palm of your hand, gently knock the surface with your fingers, or knock two pieces with each other, if the sound is crisp, indicating good quality; while if it’s of dull or hoarse sound, it indicates that there is a breakage or not fired well.

4.If the bone china ceramic is of pattern or with gold or silver, rub it hard with your finger to see if the color and gold wear off.

5.If the tableware is with a pattern, check whether the pattern’s color, location, shape, size are the same as the customer’s requirement, whether there is a missing pattern at certain places.

6.If the tableware is of a set, like 61 pieces of bone china ceramic tableware, we need to check each piece’s glaze color, pattern, luster, style, it should be consistent and proportionate. The color of each piece should be the same or very similar.

Different kind of ceramic has its features. For example, for good quality bone china tableware, the plates or bowls should be milk-white, very thin, and light with uniformed thickness.

Generally, for the daily-use tableware products like bowls, teapots, mugs, cups, the inner side is of plain white color, for plates and saucers, the middle area is usually without any decoration either. People tend to think plain white tableware is better for people’s health.

Daily ceramic products can be divided into bowls, plates, cups, pots, sugar pots, milk jars, and others such as spoons, soup tureens, salt-and-pepper bottles, etc. .

The following testing requirements apply to all ceramic products.

Appearance quality check for certain bone china ceramic tableware products

Appearance inspection includes the following aspects.

2.1 checklist for bone china ceramic plates and bowls

1. The number of black spots and glaze defects. The permissible number of defects varies according to different factors, such as the type, the size of the black spot, the apparent and non-apparent side. For example, for the visible side of the plate, the number of defects of black spots should be less than 2, tints should be less than 2, the missing glaze should be less than 2, the combination of different defects should be less than 2.

 For the non-visible side, the number of defects mentioned above should be less than 3.

2 Observe the shape of the ware to see if there is any deformation. The larger the size of the daily-use ceramic products, the more easily they be deformed. The shape should be round, square, or in line with the requirements of the customers.

3. Observe if the bottom is flat. Place the ceramic product on a flat surface to see if there is any shaking.

4. Check if there is a black background situation at the bottom. If the black part exceeds 1/4 of the total area, the product is not up to standard.

5.Observe whether the bottom is smooth after being polished. The polished bottom should be even and there should be no dent marks. Touch your hands to see if it’s sharp, otherwise, people would be easily got hurt when using it.

6.The logo should be centered at the bottom.

7. The products should be clean. If the products are dirty, inspectors should inform the factory for improvement in time to avoid future potential quality disputes.

8. Packaging should not be loose, the packaging should meet the export packaging requirements, easy for handling and transportation.

9. Shape and size should be strictly consistent with the customer’s requirements. For size less than 9 inches (including 9), the size error can not exceed 3%; For size, more than 9 inches, (excluding 9”) size error can not exceed 2.5%.

2.2 checklist for bone china ceramic cups and saucers

For cups and saucers, other requirements include the following aspects.

1.The color of cup and saucer to be consistent, color variation should be avoided, especially for color glaze products.

2.The bottom plate center can not be too large, and can not be too shallow, it should fit the bottom of the cup well, if the cup can easily slide out of the middle concave area, it means the saucer is not fit or qualified.

3.The cup handle jointed to the cup can not have a crack, the handle must be in the correct position and not out of alignment.

4.Cup, dish class size error can not exceed 3%.

2.3 checklist for bone china ceramic teapots

1.The spout can not be deformed, nor can it have an extra glaze on it. The teapot handle jointed to the teapot can not have a crack.

2.The flowing water hole of the teapot needs to be in the right position, neatly arranged, of the same size and unobstructed, not too small or too large.

3.Put the lid on and shake it slightly to see if the teapot lid is firm enough to match the teapot. Pour water to see if the lid comes off easily.

4.The teapot, handle and lid of the pot can not appear as obviously touchable mold line.

5.The teapot lid and teapot body’s color should be consistent, color variation should be avoided, especially for color glaze products.

2.4 checklist for bone china ceramic spoon

Special attention needs to be paid to the spoon.

Spoon: the hole on the hand should be located in the same position and be in the middle, the hole should be smooth, without any stains. size error can not exceed 3%.

3.Special quality checklist for bone china ceramic tableware.

3.1 The bearing capacity test of the handle and mouth

The hollow products, such as cups, pots, etc., are often used to hold food, and these products have external components such as handles, mouths, etc., which can be used to lift objects to move if the bearing capacity is not enough, it is easy to break when using, especially when the food is heated inside the container, there could be human casualties.

3.2 Surface Scratch Test

Scratch is inevitable as the plates are usually used together with knives and forks. While the scratch affects the appearance greatly.

The appearance of scratch is closely related to the hardness of the surface glaze, and the data from the test method stipulated by Vickers hardness standard are different from the actual use, so now some companies use Mohs hardness, metal knife, fork scratches, or with sandpaper friction method for testing.

3.3 Dishwasher resistance test

For the Dishwasher test, the main test is about the ability of resistant acid detergent or alkali detergent, neutral detergent ability in the dishwasher washing process.

3.4 Microwave Oven Test

Microwave oven resistance testing can be divided into three categories.

1. The damage detection to the decorative surfaces by the microwave.
2. The influence of the microwave on the temperature of the surface of the product.
3. Detection of product damage by the microwave.

The details of the various tests will be explained in a separate article.

Conclusion

The quality inspection of ceramic products should be carried out in every step of production, to effectively avoid the appearance of defective products. How to conduct the quality check, you can refer to our work procedure. The Guide to Bone China Tableware Quality Control

The article explains the aspects of the inspection. Buyers can check their products against the checklist above to see if the products they got are qualified or not thus they can find whether their suppliers are qualified.

Product quality is related to the development and image of enterprises. As one of our clients put it.“Remember, the most important 3 things are always quality, quality, quality.” It always plays an important role in the development of enterprises.