In the earlier days, coal fired bottle ovens were employed and these are rapidly going out of use now. And modern tunnel kilns with open firing facilities are used. The wares are directly placed on bats of the kiln cars. Flatware is put on a thick plate of setter and the setter needs to be straight to avoid cracking. The bungs of flatware are often sanded up the sides with clean white sand to support the rims of the plates in firing.
Cups are often boxed; i.e one is inverted over the other with a little vegetable gum on the rims to hold them together. This helps to prevent distortion in firing. To increase the load factor, smaller pieces are kept inside of larger pieces. With the advent of technological advancement in most of the companies, the loading process is also mechanised and automated.
Lot of new technical advancements took place in firing systems and hence the loading of wares has become much simplified. There are kilns run on ceramic belts where the items are loaded directly on the belts which move very fast due to very fast firing cycle.
