Climbing kilns in India (Part one)
Climbing kilns in India
A small scale alternative to a Hoffmann kiln is the Vertical Shaft Brick kiln (picture below). It appeared
in the 1960s in India and it is said to be two to three times as efficient as a Hoffmann kiln.
Moreover, it is cheap to build, does not require a large area of land and is also suited to produce much
smaller amounts of brick. A Hoffmann kiln has to be large enough in order to be efficient and is not
suited for an output of less than 15,000 bricks per day (around 5 million bricks per year).
In a vertical shaft brick kiln, the fire zone is in the middle of the shaft. Bricks are loaded from the
top (the picture does not show the ramp at the back), and unloaded from the bottom. In essence, the kiln
is built inside a chimney. Its working is explained here. Around 50,000 of them have been constructed in
India.