The historic ring kiln produces bricks with characteristics and qualities a modern tunnel kiln just cannot replicate.

Tunnel kilns have their advantages – for example higher production rates due to their automated processes. However, the bricks lose their unique colour patterns and it is not possible to fire bricks to the extreme temperatures reached with a ring kiln.

The Gillrath’s kiln is the only operational ring kiln in the North Rhine-Westphalia region. They have capitalised on the kiln’s production idiosyncrasies and now produce top quality bricks with a style unique to their business.

Moreover, the ring kiln is energy efficient because of the way the kiln is designed. The firing rooms within the kiln are all interconnected, to each other and to the main flue. Each chamber can also be loaded and unloaded through another opening.

When the chambers have been stacked with bricks they are fired, one after the other, in a continuous circle of fire. As one compartment of bricks is baked, the extreme temperature also begins to heat the bricks in the chamber next door. As the fire is “chased” around the building, brick makers begin unloading the fired bricks, and the cool air that enters the kiln as the bricks are removed also begins to cool the bricks in the neighbouring chambers waiting to be unstacked.

On May 28th, 1858…

the german construction councillor Friedrich Hoffman and the city construction councillor Julius Albert Gottlieb Licht registered the patent of their ring kiln in Preußen.

For the first time in history, a ring kiln was able to continuously burn a great amount of bricks without wasting too much energy. That kiln was Friedrich Hoffmann’s invention.

The story of the ring kiln is a success story, that has yet to be replaced. Through the invention of the ring kiln, enough building materials were offered to the quickly increasing german population and its and the worlds starting industrialisation.

Inspired by this literature:
»Vom Ziegelgott zum Industrieelektroniker«,
Autor Willi Bender, Bundesverband der dt. Ziegelindustrie, Bonn (Hrsg.)

Facts:

• ring kiln clinker is burnt at temperatures up to 1.200° C.
• Our bricks follow the building construction standard EN 771-1.
• Due to ongoing recipe and burning ritual improvements, the ring kiln clinker stays an innovative product.
• This is how we the typical  guarantee characteristics:
• Durability, value stability, an excellent heat isolation and a natural fire resistancy.