With the term “third fire” we mean the firing of a ceramic tile that has already undergone two cooking phases, the cooking of the support also called “Biscuit firing” or “Bisque firing” and the firing of the ceramic glazes.
Born in the late seventies in the Sassuolo ceramic district, it quickly spread to all the world’s ceramic districts.
The “third fire” today has taken on a greater meaning. It does not only refer to a technique but describes a specific sector in the industrial ceramics industry. To date, it does not only identify tiles that have already had two cooking cycles and that undergo a further cooking process – from here third fire – for decorations made subsequently on a glass surface, but also identifies single-fired tiles, which have therefore undergone only one cooking cycle – support and glaze together – on which lustres and decorations are applied, then annealed.
This type of decoration allows us to obtain very accurate results. High fusibility colors that aesthetically enrich ceramic products and guarantee resistance to daily use.
The quality of the third fire has reached exceptional levels thanks to the combination of different decorative products that can be used to give added value to the products: glazes, crystallines, grits, dyes, metallic luster specifically designed for this application.
Very important are the methods of application of these products, which can be liquid or paste, for brush, airbrush or screen printing applications; also the cooking cycles must be programmed so as to avoid deformation of the piece due to excessive temperature.
Among all the third-fire applications, the metallic luster, in particular, has allowed us to considerably expand the aesthetic possibilities of ceramics; their use in ceramics really dates back to ancient times, even in the 9th century AD in ancient Persia, and then spread to many regions in the 16th century thanks to the intensification of trade. This artistic technique was then brought back to life only around the mid-nineteenth century and were seen later on with industrial development, up to today where the use of metallic luster, as well as for ceramics, also extended to other sectors such as glass, crystal, porcelain, and industrial ceramics.
Among the products for third fire Inco: lustres, ecological luster, primers, grits.
English