Glossary
Furnace and Kiln Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential furnace and kiln operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key furnace and kiln operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in furnace and kiln operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Atmosphere
- Gas conditions.
- Burner
- Heat source.
- Cooling zone
- Where product cools.
- Firing curve
- Temperature over time.
- First article
- First part checked before a run.
- Kiln
- High-temperature oven.
- Kiln car
- Cart moving through a kiln.
- Lockout/tagout
- Energy isolation before servicing.
- PPE
- Personal protective equipment.
- Ramp rate
- Heating speed.
- Scrap
- Parts that fail inspection.
- Soak
- Hold at temperature.
- SOP
- Standard operating procedure.
- Thermal shock
- Cracking from fast temperature change.
- Thermocouple
- Temperature sensor.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Furnace and Kiln Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Furnace and Kiln Operator training.
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