Cup handles are made seperate to avoid them heating up from the beverage in the cup. Handles must be kept wet and are wrapped in wet cheese cloth.
As of May 20th, 1991 there are yet 2 more china patterns that aren't in the lastest book put out.
A total of 7,500 cups can be made from the machine in an 8 hour shift. There are two 8 hour shifts in a day. Cups dry in 24 hours, before going to the kiln. Clay is formed in long tubes before being made into cups.
The clay for the plates are in big square clay chunks. Employees cut off what is needed to press out plate. They can put out 2,000 to 3,000 pieces in an 8 hour shift. For plates, a ram press is used. Dye or mold is made of plaster. Forced air pushes water out of clay and pieces are molded. 1600 pounds of pressure per square inch is needed to do this.
For some of the bakeware the clay is colored right at the factory. Clay is brought to Thomasville by railroad car. They get it from the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee. It all comes in a powdered form. They receive 10 railcars in a weeks time.
Clay is tested and then put into silo bins for storage. Barrels can mix 40 batches in an 8 hour shift.
The clay is blown in from railcar into silos. Clay ingredients include basil, china clay, philspar,and cilica.
The pub mill machine can put out 30 cups per minute, 16,000 to 30,000 in two 8 hour shifts. Dryer can hold up to 4,500 cups.
Ceramic glazes are made in large barrels. It takes 4 and a half hours to mix one batch of glaze. Once it is mixed a sample is taken to make sure it passes inspection. Then glazes are sorted in barrels and dated when mixed. Glaze ingredients are flirt, philspar, and cilica. Paint is mixed again 2 hours before going to spray line and again another sample is taken and tested. When glaze colors change, the large mixing barrels are washed out with soap and water before a new color is added to the barrels. Pfaltzgraff bares no glaze on the bottom of their wares because they will stick to the kiln otherwise. If the pattern design is not pressed onto ware with hand sponge, a machine can make a press pattern with a sponge pad. Bands on wares are applied by hand, brush, or by machine.
It takes 2 to 6 hours to load 1 kiln car. First they are dried at 300 to 500 degrees. Stoneware must be completely dry before firing or it can explode. Kiln beginning temperature is 300 degrees. Center reaches 2200 degrees and the bottom end around 400 degrees. It will take one kiln car about 12 hours to pass through the entire kiln. Kiln runs non stop, 24 hours a day. Unloaders wear gloves to unload kiln car. If ware explodes or machine breaks down, it must be shut down to cool for 1 weeks time and repair person will go in with a fireproof suit and try to repair it.
A person who sorts is called a sorty. They will sort through for firsts and seconds after ware has come out of kiln. There are 15 different things a sorty must watch for.
New patterns on market: Blueberry and two different sponge ware designs called Riverstone and Sandstone.
Thirds are thrown and sold for use in road fill. All other excess clay is reused.
New Christmas line is introduced this year. It is called Winterberry.
Decals are used on certain wares also. They are soaked in water and stuck on. Yellow coating around decal burns off and the pattern is left after going through kiln. Decals are brought from England and Germany, but Pfaltzgraff can also make their own decal designs. In two 8 hour shifts, 25,000 pieces can be decaled. Each piece has employees mark as well.
Lamps are bench casted. They are assembled at the West York plant.
Newer machines paint 4 colors. This particular machine was purchased from Germany.
A piece of stoneware is handled on the average of 32 times.
A dry press is also used to form wares. The clay powder is compressed at 4,200 pounds per square inch. These presses were introduced in 1983. This form is almost all machine handled and on an average would be human handle only about 4 to 5 times.Clay powdered pieces take 6 to 7 hours to fire.
More dry powdered machines were added in 1985. In three 8 hour shifts it can put out 35,000 to 50,000 pieces.
The decorating section of the plant was built onto in 1982.
A new machine called the bold machine will produce
bakeware pieces. A total of 444 persons now work at the
Thomasville plant and overall 1,200 persons at
manufacturing plants.
Well there you go, a self guided tour through the eyes of mine! No doubt alot has changed in their production since 1991. Machines are continually improving therefore demanding different jobs. I believe one could tour this factory each year and see change!!!
The Thomasville factory in York, PA closed it's doors in 2005 after Lifetime Brand purchased the Pfaltzgraff company. The stoneware is now being made in China.
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